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THE 
OLD DOMINION 

HER MAKING AND HER MANNERS 



BY 

THOMAS NELSON PAGE 



CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
NEW YORK:::::::::::::::::: 1908 



-Pl3 



Is 
Two Copies N<* 

fEB 29 1908 



Copyright, 1908, by 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 



Published February, 1908 



• * 

• • • 




iDeUicatet) to 
ROSEWELL PAGE, ESQUIRE, 

A VIRGINIA COUNTRY GENTLEMAN, WHO BY 
HIS CHARACTER, HIS UNSELFISHNESS, HIS DE- 
VOTION TO DUTY AND HIS LIFELONG HABIT 
OF SPENDING HIMSELF FOR OTHERS, HAS 
PRESERVED IN THE PRESENT THE BEST 
TRADITIONS OF THE OLD DOMINION'S PAST 



PREFACE 

IT has from a long time back been an author's 
privilege to say a word more or less confi- 
dential to his Reader before committing himself 
in cold type to the Public. The author of these 
Essays now avails himself of this privilege to 
express the hope that whatever their faults may 
be, they may lead some of his readers to turn 
for themselves to the almost unknown page of 
their Country's History: the Record of the 
early life of "The Antient Dominion." Few 
know it now, yet no page of the History of the 
Race will better repay patient study; for none 
shines with more heroic deeds, or more sublime 
fortitude and endeavor. Her History belongs 
not to the present Virginia alone. It is the heri- 
tage of every State carved from the mighty em- 
pire once embraced within her borders. Of 
the first six thousand settlers who came over 
and seized and held this great country for 



viii PREFACE 

England and her People; nine out of ten "left 
here their bodies in testimonie of their mindes." 
But they left the Old Dominion founded, to be 
the foundation of a new Nation. She brought 
forth in time a new Civilization where Charac- 
ter and Courtesv went hand in hand; where the 
goal ever set before the eye was Honor, and 
where the distinguishing marks of the life were 
Simplicity and Sincerity. 

It was by no mere accident that Washington, 
Jefferson, Madison, Marshall, Henry, Mason 
and their like came from Tidewater and Pied- 
mont Virginia. They were the proper product 
of her distinctive Civilization, and were not un- 
common types of the Character she has given 
to her Children. 

The writer is under obligations to all the 
faithful Historians who have in the past labored 
to preserve and set forth the true History of 
Virginia as they were able to find it. And he 
especially wishes to record his debt to the pious 
labors of the late Alexander Brown of Virginia, 
who devoted his life to the collection and publi- 
cation of the early records of the History of the 
Old Dominion. To his monumental work, "The 
Genesis of the United States," every American 
Historian must ever be indebted. 

The fact that these Essays came in part from 



PREFACE ix 

addresses delivered before various Societies at 
different times, will account for certain repeti- 
tions in them. The author, however, hopes 
that this repetition may not be frequent enough 
to prove tedious, and, moreover, he feels that 
some facts cannot be too often repeated. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Beginning of America .... 3 

II. Jamestown, the Birthplace of the 

American People 58 

III. Colonial Life 134 

IV. The Revolutionary Movement . . 153 

V. Thomas Jefferson and the University 

of Virginia 198 

VI. The Southern People During Recon- 
struction 235 

VII. The Old Dominion Since the War . 281 

VIII. An Old Neighborhood in Virginia . 332 

IX. An Old Virginia Sunday 362 



THE OLD DOMINION 
HER MAKING AND HER MANNERS 



THE OLD DOMINION 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA 

" Some tracks of Feeting they found upon a Sandy Bank." — 
Strachey: First Travails into Virginia. 

/ I a O comprehend truly the achievement of 
the settlement of Jamestown and what it 
has signified to the world, and still signifies to- 
day, if we but knew it, it is necessary to go back 
among the forces that were at work in Western 
Europe during the time when the Dark Ages 
were giving way to the light of the New Learn- 
ing. Many forces combined to produce the re- 
sults, working with that patience which char- 
acterizes the laws of Nature. The energies of 
men had been engrossed by the exactions of 
war, and of a civilization based on war. The 
mind of man had been for ages monopolized 
by war militant or spiritual. Person and intel- 
lect alike lay under rule. Then gradually, after 
long lethargy, men began to think. Historians 



4 THE OLD DOMINION 

wrote; poets sang; statesmen planned; scientists 
experimented. The mariner's compass, whether 
brought by Marco Polo from the East, or in- 
vented by the Neapolitan, Flavio Gioja, or by 
some one else, came into use in Europe: other 
nautical instruments were invented or improved. 
Gunpowder was invented and gradually changed 
the methods of war. The* New Learning began 
to sweep over Europe. The Art of printing 
from movable types was invented. The ice was 
broken up and the stream, long dammed, began 
to flow. The Reformation came and men burst 
the chains which had bound them. 

The breaking up of the old conditions and re- 
lations made necessary a great readjustment. 
Two quite distinct peoples and civilizations were 
found facing each other. The Latin race and 
the civilization founded on the Civil Law and 
the Roman Church were on one side; the Saxon 
race and its civilization founded on the Com- 
mon Law and a greatly modified Ecclesiastical 
System were on the other. 

Spain, fighting under the banner of the Cross, 
was just freeing herself from the Mahometan, 
and in the very year in which Columbus gave 
her a new world, Castile achieved her final 
victory over the Moor. On the other hand, 
the Moslem was strengthening himself on the 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA 5 

eastern frontier of Europe. The city of Con- 
stantine, after a long struggle, fell before him 
in 1453, and the Eastern Empire which had 
been the asylum and nursery of civilization be- 
came the prey of the Ottoman Turk. Her 
trade, which had made Venice and Florence and 
Genoa, was hemmed in on the eastward, and 
the land which Marco Polo had visited was with 
its fabulous wealth suddenly cut off. 

Prince Henry, the Navigator, had set up his 
observatory in Portugal, and drawn around him 
the best cosmographers and navigators of the 
world. Under his patronage bold Portuguese 
and other mariners had coasted down the Afri- 
can continent, and in i486 Bartholomew Diaz 
was blown so far south that when he turned to 
strike the coast again he passed the southern 
point without seeing it and turning north found 
the land to the westward and himself on the 
eastern coast. 

Thus, the spirit of the age was alert, and in 
the very moment of time came the Genoese 
navigator, who on his first appearance in his- 
tory, is described as "Christopher Columbus, 
Stranger." He had conceived and worked out the 
noble idea that he could reach the East by sail- 
ing boldly west, and he devoted his great powers 
and his life to establish it in the minds of men. 



6 THE OLD DOMINION 

The sphericity of the earth had been suggested 
speculatively as far back as the time of Pytha- 
goras; Plato, who seems to have contemplated 
everything in the heavens above, and the earth 
beneath and the waters under the earth, dis- 
cussed it; Aristotle half taught it; and Ptolemy, 
the geographer, laid it down as a probability. 
Columbus probably did not even first among 
Europeans touch this hemisphere; five hundred 
years before his day, Eric the Red planted a 
colony on the northeastern peninsula, and Lief, 
his son, led explorers down to Vinland the Good, 
somewhere on or near the northeastern coast 
of the United States. Eric's colonies throve for 
four centuries and then perished, whilst the 
story of Vinland was lost so utterly that no 
memory of it remained except in the Sagas. 
Other later bold adventurers touched on those 
shores — possibly among them the Zenos of 
Venice, whose map shows all the knowledge of 
the earth known in their time. 

Much has been made of late by certain 
scholars of the new and so-called critical school, 
out of these earlier voyagings of Scandinavian 
seamen, and the great Admiral has been even 
a second time decried as an impostor; but the 
difference between them and Columbus was 
that they were bold seamen and captains, and 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA 7 

merely that, voyaging in distant seas in quest 
of booty as others of their race had done often 
before, whilst the great Admiral, with a high 
prevision and a noble enthusiasm, after a life 
devoted to the work, struck boldly out across 
the globe on lines of navigation which he had 
mapped for himself to find in unknown seas 
the shores of a continent which was to enrich 
and save Christendom. He had no dream of a 
new continent; any more than had others who 
for many years followed in his wake; but he 
braved the Sea of Darkness with all its terrors to 
find by untried routes through unknown oceans 
Cipango and Cathay. To set the egg up on end 
was easy enough when once it had been done. 
He was the man for the time; and the time 
suited the man. Had he not discovered Amer- 
ica barring his way he would have found the 
Indies. And had not America been here it is 
likely that European enterprise and force would 
have made Asia their field, and so the history 
of the world would still have been different. 

He found a land, not that, indeed, he sought; 
but one richer than ever he dreamed Cathay to 
be, and though, when he died, the records of his 
town contain no mention of the fact, the half a 
world he gave to Spain glorifies his memory four 
hundred years afterwards as the greatest human 



8 THE OLD DOMINION 

benefactor the human race has known. He 
alone of all men of his time had a right concep- 
tion of the greatness of the work he was to ac- 
complish. There is nothing finer than the story 
of the interview between him and Isabella: when 
on her refusal to grant him all he demanded, and 
it was a high demand, made as a king to a king, 
he, on the eve of attaining all he had worked for, 
striven for, pined for through long years of wait- 
ing and struggling, turned his back on the Court 
and set out to try once more a new king in a 
new land. We know how he was recalled when 
already on his way to leave Spain, and we know 
how it is said Isabella pledged her jewels as se- 
curity for the loan she raised to help him; we 
know how he set his prows steadily to the West 
and held them there alike against threats and 
entreaties, and how he found not the Indies, in- 
deed, but a land greater and richer and nobler 
far; which, though he died in ignorance of the 
greatness of his discovery, was the vastest fruit 
that one man's genius ever produced. 

The Wars of the Roses had ended on Bosworth 
field (August 22, 1485). The rival houses of 
York and Lancaster which had torn England 
for generations had been united, and for the 
first time in many years England had peace 
within her borders, and soon had time to apply 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA 9 

her energies to the Arts of Peace at home and 
to preparation for war abroad. 

The news of the discovery of new shores by 
a Spanish navigator and their possession by 
Spain stirred England and her awaking people, 
as it did the nearer nations. Spain freed from 
Moorish domination and claiming a new world 
of fabulous wealth suddenly loomed up as the 
greatest nation of the earth, and with Portugal 
proceeded under arbitrament of the Holy See 
to parcel out between them the unknown world. 

Portugal already had a right under papal de- 
crees to all heathen lands discovered or to be 
discovered east of a line of longitude one hundred 
leagues west of the Azore Islands, and Spain had 
obtained from the same authority the right of 
discovery to the westward. Portugal procured 
the shifting of this line to a point three hundred 
leagues west of the islands, a circumstance to 
which was due at a later date her claim to Brazil. 

The English had the blood of bold sailors in 
her veins. Norseman and Dane had intermin- 
gled with Celt and Saxon, and there was left, 
if partly dormant, the undying spirit which had 
flouted the fierce Baltic and in old days had 
gone as far as Greenland to the north and Con- 
stantinople to the south. 

Spain's good fortune was viewed with envy, 



io THE OLD DOMINION 

her proud claims with jealousy. Bold navi- 
gators were not wanting. Columbus, despair- 
ing at one time of success in Spain, had sent 
his brother, Bartholomew, to England to try his 
fortune there, and he was there when Columbus 
sailed from Palos. In the summer of 1480, ac- 
cording to William of Worcester, two vessels 
sailed to find the Island of Brazil, but put back 
again by reason of foul weather. On the 21st 
of January, 1496, Puebla, the Spanish Am- 
bassador, informed his sovereigns that "a person 
had come, like Columbus, to propose to the King 
of England an enterprise like that of the Indies. " 
On the 28th of March the sovereigns instructed 
him to warn Henry VII. that such an enterprise 
would be an infringement on the rights of Spain 
and Portugal. 

The Indies were the goal of all men's hopes, 
and the idea of a northwest passage thither took 
firm hold in the minds of men, especially of 
Englishmen. 

On the 5th of March, 1496, a charter for dis- 
covery and colonization was granted to John Ca- 
bot and his three sons; as similar charters were 
granted to Richard Warde and others; but in 
order to be "without prejudice to Spain and Por- 
tugal " these charters extended only east, north 
and west of forty-four degrees north latitude. 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA n 

John Cabot sailed with a fleet of five vessels 
in the spring of 1497, one of which was com- 
manded by his son, Sebastian, destined to be- 
come even more famous than his illustrious 
father, and explored the coast of New Found- 
land, which they reached, according to Sebastian 
Cabot's map, on June 24th, thus becoming the 
first white men who ever touched the shores of 
North America. They were back in England 
again in August. 

Sebastian Cabot, still seeking for the north- 
west passage to India, the goal of all hopes, 
sailed again the next year and penetrated that 
Bay in which Henry Hudson, more than a cen- 
tury later (1610), still looking for the unfound 
passage to India, the El Dorado of the Arctic 
Seas, was to be set adrift with his dying son, 
and to which he was to give his name, a memorial 
of his romantic and pathetic fate. Having failed 
to find the northwest passage, Cabot took 
service with Spain, whose growing possessions 
and power were making service under her the 
ambition of all navigators. 

The Island of Hispaniola was settled and 
planted, and from this as a centre of the work 
of new discovery, conquest and colonization 
went rapidly on. Diego Columbus took pos- 
session as Admiral and Governor of the Indies 



12 THE OLD DOMINION 

in 1509, and he gave all his energies to the work. 
In 1509 Ojeda and Nicuesa took possession of 
Darien, which La Cosa and Amerigo Vespucci 
had explored under Ojeda in 1505-7. In 151 1 
Diego Columbus sentValasquez to conquer Cuba. 
In 1513 Nunez de Balboa crossed the Isthmus of 
Darien and waded into the new ocean which he 
discovered on the other side. The stories of the 
Incas and their wealth reached him, and a few 
years later (1517) he had fitted out three ships 
and was about to start southward, when he was 
arrested on a charge of treason and put to death 
by the bloody Pedrarias, Governor of Darien. 

In the spring of 15 13 Juan Ponce de Leon, a 
brave soldier who had been with Columbus in 
his second voyage, and had now got permission 
to lead an expedition in search of the fabled 
Isle of Bimini and Fountain of Youth, told of 
by Sir John Mandeville, set out to the west- 
ward, and reaching a harbor on Easter day, 
the Feast of Flowers, named the land Florida, 
in honor of the day. He explored the land on 
the east and the west, and found in some sort, 
indeed, the fountain he sought, for though an 
Indian arrow cut short his career, he still lives 
in the perpetual youth of romance, the most at- 
tractive character of all that time. 

About this time, 15 18, Grijaloa heard from a 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA 13 

tax-gatherer in Yucatan the story of his master 
Montezuma. This was the first time the new- 
comers had found anything like the civilization 
and wealth they had been dreaming of. As they 
were still in Asia, this, of course, was the Great 
Khan. Grijaloa bore the news to Cuba, and was 
superseded for his reward, and the command of 
the expedition that was sent out was given to 
a young soldier of fortune who had been with 
Valasquez in the Conquest of Cuba: Hernando 
Cortez. By the end of 1521 Cortez had con- 
quered Mexico and found the way to the con- 
quest of all of what is now Central America, 
justifying his proud rebuke to Philip II., that he 
had given him more provinces than his father 
had had cities. 

In 1 5 19 Alvarez de Pineda followed the west- 
ern coast of Florida as far around as Tampico 
in Mexico, where he met Cortez exploring that 
land. Turning back he entered and spent six 
weeks in exploring the lower Mississippi, and 
seems to have been the first European to sail on 
its waters. 

In September, 1519, Ferdinand Magellan set 
out to circumnavigate the globe, and in the face 
of starvation, desertion and mutiny, circumnavi- 
gated it, the greatest feat ever accomplished by 
a navigator, that of Columbus hardly excepted, 



i 4 THE OLD DOMINION 

and verified his high boast to his mutinous lieu- 
tenants that he would sail to India if he had to 
gnaw the leather from his ships' yards. The great 
navigator lost his life in the Philippine Islands 
after he had traversed the unknown seas and 
reached lands that were known; but his work 
was accomplished and he had circled the earth. 

In 153 1 the Pizarros began the conquest of 
Peru, and added to Spain the richest province 
she had yet found: the province, indeed, which 
was to be her chief source of wealth. 

From this time it may well be believed that all 
maritime nations were looking to the region 
where the East met the West. It was just be- 
ginning to dawn on men that the new Land was 
not Asia and the Indies at all, but a New 
Continent which stretched across the track to 
Asia; and enterprise began to be turned to the 
work of finding a way through this land to far 
Cathay. Bays and even rivers were explored 
with the hope of discovering some passage. 

Among the navigators who turned their at- 
tention to this, the first was Lucas Vasquez 
d'Ayllon; and he was the first that is certainly 
known to have made any exploration of the 
Coast of Virginia. In 1524 he sailed from His- 
paniola, and it is claimed that he sailed into the 
Chesapeake, and up the broad river which 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA 15 

poured its waters down almost opposite the 
capes. Liking the country, he obtained a grant 
from Charles V., and, returning in 1526, he is said 
to have brought with him colonists and some 
five hundred negro slaves, and to have begun 
to found a town, which he called San Miguel, 
on the banks of the river, near where the first 
Anglo-Saxon settlement that was to live was to 
be founded, almost a hundred years later. This 
is the first reputed settlement of Virginia, and 
the first importation of slaves within the bor- 
ders of the present United States. He lost his 
life and his colony failed. The evidence, how- 
ever, is far from conclusive that this settlement 
was not much further south than the Chesa- 
peake. 

In 1525 Estevan Gomez, who had been one 
of Magellan's pilots and had deserted him, is 
said to have coasted from Labrador to Florida, 
taking notes of capes and rivers. But by this 
time the growing wealth and power of Spain 
were beginning to excite the jealousy of other 
countries, and they were looking with envious 
eyes to the new and not very well defined pos- 
sessions which she claimed. 

More than one French navigator seems to 
have preceded Gomez. Norman and Breton 
fishermen were visiting the banks of New Found- 



16 THE OLD DOMINION 

land regularly; and Spain's pretensions were be- 
ginning to be the subject of more than question. 
Bernal Diaz says that Francis I. sent word to 
his great rival Charles V. to ask by what right 
he and the King of Portugal undertook to claim 
the earth. Had Adam made them his sole heirs ? 
If so, why, produce the will, and meanwhile he 
should feel at liberty to seize all he could get. 

In 1523 Giovanni da Verraza, a Florentine by 
birth, but in the service of France, captured the 
treasure sent by Cortez to Charles V. and next 
year coasted from about Cape Fear to 50 degrees 
north. Charles, however, so crippled Francis 
in the Italian Campaign (1525) that it was not 
until ten years later that Jacques Cartier ex- 
plored the lower St. Lawrence and founded 
Montreal. It was now believed that the land 
stretching from Labrador to Darien was a nar- 
row strip like the Isthmus itself and Spain bent 
her energies to cross it. The first of her gallant 
explorers to attempt it was Panfilo de Narvaez, 
but the best known in history was Ferdinand 
de Soto, who, in 1539, penetrated as far as the 
Mississippi, on whose banks he died and in 
whose waters his body was buried. 

The penurious Henry VII. had meantime 
died (April 21, 1509) and been succeeded by 
Henry VIII. , married to the Spanish princess, 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA 17 

Catherine of Aragon, and one of the most not- 
able monarchs in all history. A beast in his 
personal tastes and private life, violating brutally 
every law, human and divine, he was one of the 
most able and powerful rulers of modern times. 
To gratify his personal appetites he divorced his 
Spanish wife, exploited the nascent Protestant- 
ism of the English people, repudiated the Roman 
Church, and slew all who opposed him; but he 
laid the foundation of the English navy, and 
once more established England as a great power. 

The publication of "Utopia," by the first sub- 
ject in England, showed how the English mind 
was working. The great intellect of Sir Thomas 
More was already forecasting the establishment 
of a mighty nation beyond the seas "where peace 
and happiness, truth and justice, religion and 
piety should be established for all generations. " 
In 15 12 the Trinity House was founded by 
Captain Thomas Spert as an "Association for 
Piloting Ships," and it was incorporated in 15 14. 
In April, 1536, Master Robert Hore, of Lon- 
don, sailed in John Cabot's track to New Found- 
land, in two ships, with some twenty-five gentle- 
men and ninety others, sailors, etc. 

On the 28th of January, 1547, Henry VIII. 
died, and his young son, Edward VI., succeeded 
him. Strongly Protestant and under direction of 



18 THE OLD DOMINION 

stout Protestant haters of Spain, he or his ad- 
visers began to establish Protestantism in Eng- 
land. They recalled Sebastian Cabot from Spain, 
and proceeded to encourage the discovery of 
new lands without reference to limits and claims 
based upon papal decrees. The great associa- 
tion was formed, known as "The Mysterie and 
Company of Discoverie of Regions, Dominions, 
Islands, and Places Unknown. " It was to a 
certain extent a re-issuance of the Charter of 
1496 to John Cabot, but it no longer recognized 
even by implication the bounds fixed by the Pope, 
as that did when it confined discoveries to lands 
north, east and west of England. 

Queen Mary succeeded Edward VI. (July, 
1553), after the sad little ten days' reign of that 
sweetest and most pathetic of sovereigns, the 
little Queen Jane. She married Philip II. of 
Spain (July 25, 1554) and with an earnest 
woman's zeal gave her life to restoring England 
to the Papacy. The dazzling richness of the 
Spanish retinue of the bridegroom, and espe- 
cially the wagon-loads of Spanish ingots hauled 
through the streets of London on this occasion, 
awakened the English people to a sudden realiza- 
tion of the value of the prize Spain had seized. 
It was an object-lesson which they never forgot. 
On the 6th of July, 1555, Mary granted a sec- 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA 19 

ond charter to the Merchant Adventurers, con- 
fining them, however, henceforth to the north, 
northeast, and northwestward of England, thus 
reasserting recognition of the Papal decrees and 
of the claims of Spain. 

The spirit of discovery and adventure was, 
however, now wide awake, and many merchant 
adventurers visited the new world, and turning 
southward inspected enviously the possessions 
of the Spanish Crown. Their minds could not 
have been insensible to the contrast between the 
rich possessions of Spain, with its fabulous El 
Dorado, and the bleak and barren latitudes to 
which they themselves were restricted. "Ad- 
venture" then meant simply coming to, and 
commerce was its great motive. The great 
coiner of a golden language a generation later 
showed the spirit of the age by putting in his 
lover's mouth the words, 

" But wert thou far as is that farthest sea, 
I would adventure for such merchandise." 

In 1555 Richard Eden published his "Decades 
of the Newe Worlde or West India," the first 
published collection of voyages in English. He 
dedicated it to " Philip, King of England and 
Spain." 

Queen Mary, happily for the world, died (on 



20 THE OLD DOMINION 

the 17th of November, 1558), and was succeeded 
by the great Elizabeth. She was Protestant and 
England was Protestant. With much of her 
father's imperious nature, she meant that Eng- 
land should be supreme and that she should be 
supreme in England. She at once threw down 
the gage. In her first Parliament (1559) a bill 
was passed vesting in the Crown of England the 
Supremacy claimed by the Pope; abolishing the 
Mass and declaring England Protestant. Eliza- 
beth proceeded to enforce her claim. The ques- 
tion passed from being one of religion only; it 
became one of patriotism. She gathered about 
her the ablest men of her realm, used them with 
consummate art, governed them with extraordi- 
nary ability and laid the foundation of Eng- 
land's real greatness. The fight between Roman 
Catholicism and Protestantism was becoming 
fiercer and fiercer. In France the Huguenots were 
making fast progress; in the Low Countries the 
fight was yet more bitter. Spain was the head of 
the Catholic powers. Elizabeth made England 
the head of the Protestant powers. Spain became 
her rival and enemy; and the whole trend of 
English opinion and endeavor was to surpass 
and overcome this mighty enemy. Elizabeth em- 
ployed all her arts to win. She encouraged the 
Huguenots here, the Orange States there; she, 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA 21 

with the same plan, even entertained proposals of 
marriage, playing her royal game with royal 
deception, and always with an eye to England's 
and her own aggrandizement. 

The struggle between Protestantism and 
Roman Catholicism was now to add a new in- 
terest to the new land. The great Coligny was 
the first to attempt to found a Protestant State 
on this continent. In 1555 he sent out a small 
colony of Huguenots under Nicholas de Ville- 
gagnon who, striking south, started a settlement 
on the present site of Rio de Janeiro. Theo- 
logical disputes, however, soon divided his peo- 
ple; Villegagnon returned to France to maintain 
his side, and the Portuguese massacred the rem- 
nant. Coligny's next attempt was on the coast of 
Florida under one Jean Ribault. Ribault took 
out a small advance party, who on May 1, 1555, 
reached land in what is now South Carolina, and 
started a colony at the present Port Royal. 
Leaving thirty men there under a commander, 
Ribault returned to France to bring out the rest 
of the settlers, but was driven by the breaking 
out of the war between the Huguenots and the 
Guises to England, where he published in 1563 
his account of Terra Florida. 

In 1564, peace having been patched up, an 
expedition came out under Rene de Laudonniere, 



22 THE OLD DOMINION 

a noble kinsman of Coligny. Meantime, the 
colony left at Port Royal had broken up. They 
had pillaged and maltreated the Indians, after 
the old custom, until the latter had turned on 
them; then mutiny had broken out: they had 
killed their commander and set to sea in a small 
ship which they had. Their provisions had 
given out and they had already resorted to 
cannibalism when an English ship rescued the 
survivors and brought them to England. 

Laudonniere's expedition turned further south 
and landed on the St. John's River in Florida, 
at the mouth of which stream they built a fort 
and laid out a town, called Fort Caroline, 
after Charles IX. 

This settlement is of special interest to us, be- 
cause on its fate in some sort hinged the 
subsequent history of this country. It was a 
large and well-equipped expedition; but con- 
sisted mainly of soldiers and gentlemen advent- 
urers who had come in search of gold and were 
unaccustomed to work. They explored and 
searched for gold, and, finding none, presently 
some of them fell to mutinying and, becoming 
"a gang of malcontents," stole a couple of 
pinnaces and went off to Cuba, where they capt- 
ured a Spanish boat, but were presently obliged 
to put ashore for provisions. Here they were 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA 23 

seized, and in hopes of saving their necks 
they gave full information as to the unknown 
colony on the St. John's. The news created 
much excitement. Word that the Huguenots 
were attempting to seize Florida, was sent to 
Spain and caused a furore there. It so happened 
that about this time Philip II. had found the man 
just fitted to his hand in Pedro Menendez d'Ar- 
villes, a man who was (to quote Fiske) "an ad- 
mirable soldier and a matchless liar; brave as a 
mastiff, savage as a wolf." Menendez had just 
persuaded Philip to let him go to Florida to con- 
vert the Indians. The news of Laudonniere's 
colony enraged him. Both as Frenchmen and 
heretics they were the enemies of Spain and of the 
Lord. He would root them out. Rumor had add- 
ed to the report that Ribault was about to take 
out reinforcements and supplies; so no time was 
to be lost. Menendez increased his force and 
set sail from Cadiz on the 29th of June, 1565. 
Meantime, the colony on the St. John's had gone 
through the common hardships of all such 
colonies; the strong hand of Laudonniere had 
quelled mutiny, but starvation was staring them 
in the face, when, on the 3rd of August, Sir John 
Hawkins, cruising in the Spanish Main, found 
them and offered to take them home. This 
Laudonniere refused, and, leaving them such pro- 



24 THE OLD DOMINION 

vision as he could of bread and wine, and one of 
his ships to use at their need, the Englishman 
cruised on. The rumor heard in Spain was 
true, and, on the 28th of August, Ribault arrived 
with three hundred men and abundant supplies. 
When, therefore, on the 3rd of September, after 
losing a number of ships, Menendez sailed down 
upon them, he found them too strong to attack, 
and too vigilant to surprise, and so sailed away. 
He did not go far, however, but turning down 
the coast, put in where stands to-day the oldest 
town on the Continent — St. Augustine. Here he 
proceeded at once to build a fort. His move- 
ments had been watched by one of the French 
ships, and information of his landing and work 
was brought back to Laudonniere. There was 
no time to be lost. It was decided that Ribault 
should take the ships and most of the men and, 
sailing down, fall upon him at once before he 
could complete his fortification, whilst Laudon- 
niere should remain with such men as should be 
left to defend the fort. The plan promised well, 
and on the 10th of September Ribault sailed out 
of the St. John's. Unhappily, however, next 
day, just as he was bearing down upon the 
Spaniard, one of those fierce equinoctial gales 
common to that region and season sprang 
up and soon changed to a storm, which blew 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA 25 

the French ships out to sea. Menendez was 
not a man to lose an opportunity or to waste 
time. The continuance of the storm blowing 
off shore made it certain that the ships could not 
have got back to harbor, and rendered it equally 
probable that precautions would be relaxed on 
land. Accordingly, on the 17th of September, 
whilst the storm still raged, he set out with five 
hundred men and two Indian guides to surprise 
Fort Caroline. It was a tremendous undertak- 
ing, a three days' forced march through a Florida 
wilderness, but it was completely successful. 
Pushing on night and day through swamp and 
forest, and across swollen streams, the bloody 
Menendez, torn with briars and haggard with 
fatigue, but his wolfish appetite only sharpened 
thereby, just before dawn of the third night fell 
upon the sleeping settlement and butchered men, 
women and children to the number of one 
hundred and forty-two souls. Laudonniere and 
a few others escaped to the forest, and after un- 
told sufferings were picked up on the shore by 
a friendly vessel. Meantime, Ribault's vessels 
were wrecked one after another on the long sandy 
beach to the southward, and the men who got 
ashore divided into two bodies and set out to 
march home. On the 28th of September the 
first body, some two hundred in number, reached 



26 THE OLD DOMINION 

the southern bank of Matanzas inlet, twelve 
miles below St. Augustine, and found Menendez 
awaiting them on the other bank with some 
seventy men. As they had no boat a parley 
ensued, and a few officers got into a boat that 
Menendez sent over and came across to negoti- 
ate terms. 

Just what followed is not known except from 
Menendez. He says that they were informed 
of the destruction of their town and surrendered 
on what they understood to be a promise of 
safety, but that he used equivocal words. Any- 
how, this is what happened. It was surrender 
or starvation. They agreed to surrender. The 
arms were first sent over, and then he brought 
the men over in a boat ten at a time, and taking 
them off behind a line of sand-hills, bound their 
hands behind their backs. By sunset they were 
all over and securely bound, and then he coolly 
butchered every soul. A day or two later the 
other body, about three hundred and fifty in all, 
came up as the first had done, and again their 
officers were courteously entertained, and sur- 
render was proposed. About two hundred re- 
fused to surrender and marched away. The rest 
surrendered as the others had done before, 
Menendez swearing on the cross to spare them. 
Again the same scenes were witnessed : a few at 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA 27 

a time they were brought over and led around 
the hill and bound, but to be butchered when all 
were in the clutches of this wolf. Only five 
were left alive, and one who was not quite dead 
crawled off after the butchers had left. The 
other party were caught later, but Menendez's 
own men revolted at further butchery, and their 
lives were saved. Menendez wrote his master 
of his work as coolly as if he were speaking of 
slaughtered pigs, and received from him the calm 
reply, that as to those he had killed it was well, 
and as to those he had left he would put them in 
the galleys. Such was Philip II. The memory 
of those dreadful scenes survives to-day in the 
name of the pretty inlet just below St. Augus- 
tine which so many visitors sail on each winter. 
The name, Matanzas, is musical enough, but it 
means "The Slaughtering." 

This brief but bloody affair possibly settled 
the destiny of the southern coast of the continent. 

This was in a time of peace with France; but 
Catherine de Medicis, who murdered Coligny 
and planned the massacre of St. Bartholomew 
a few years later (August 24, 1572), was not 
likely to go to war with the master of the Duke 
of Alva about the butchery of a few hundred of 
Coligny's Huguenots. This, perhaps, Menendez 
understood, for he put up over the heads of those 



28 THE OLD DOMINION 

he hanged this legend: "Not as Frenchmen, but 
as Heretics. " If, however, the Queen Mother 
did not care about the butchery of her subjects, 
there was one Frenchman who did care. Dom- 
inique de Gourges, a noble Gascon, had himself 
suffered at the hands of the Spaniards, having 
been captured by them and put in the galleys, 
and the story of this new outrage fired his heart, 
as later the news of the slaughter of John Haw- 
kins' men fired Walter Raleigh's heart. He de- 
termined to avenge it. He sold his family estates 
and fitting out three vessels sailed for the coast of 
Guinea with a commission to capture slaves. 
Then, presently, he turned his course towards 
Florida, and landed quietly on the coast some- 
where above the Spanish Fort. The Indians, 
who had learned by this time what Menendez 
was, joined the newcomers with joy, and, with 
some five hundred of them as allies, Gourges 
marched down upon the Spanish Fort. The sur- 
prise was as complete as that of the French Fort 
before, and the work as ferocious and thorough 
as that of Menendez. Menendez, unfortunately 
for poetic justice, was in Spain, and the Span- 
iards not dreaming that a Frenchman was nearer 
than France, and taking advantage of the 
Governor's absence, had relaxed their watch, 
and were just concluding their midday meal 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA 29 

when Gourges swept down upon them. Every 
man of the four hundred constituting the garri- 
son was put to the sword except some fifteen or 
twenty whom he hanged, and over whose heads, 
in grim repartee for Menendez's declaration, 
"Not as Frenchmen, but as Heretics, ,, he posted 
a sign, "Not as Spaniards, but as liars and 
murderers." Then he sailed back to France. 

A couple of years later Menendez returned and 
refounded his settlement. But by this time new 
elements had come into being. The extension 
of Spanish power in North America was doomed, 
and the fate of Spanish ascendency in the world 
was sealed. Spain, cohesive within her own 
borders at home, abroad dominant on Land, 
Mistress of the Seas, possessing a vast empire at 
home and an even vaster one abroad, yet con- 
tained a radical and fatal vice which was to de- 
stroy her. She was the embodiment of the old 
as opposed to the new; of the past as against 
the future; of the out-worn as against the 
fresh and vigorous; of the narrow as opposed 
to the broad. She held to the established with 
unspeakable pride and blindness, and permitted 
no growth, no advance. She excluded the light 
which was breaking on all sides and remained 
in darkness, and whilst others advanced and 
grew, she stood still and dwindled. Nor was 



3 o THE OLD DOMINION 

it unnatural. Progress moves on natural lines; 
nations rise and fall by natural laws. It was 
in the year 711 that the Moor first landed 
in Spain, and, setting up the Crescent against 
the Cross, he had in a short time established 
himself and almost conquered the Land that 
had withstood Rome at the zenith of her 
power; but the Visigoth was a sturdy stock and 
in the mountain sections he withstood the new 
invader and maintained himself. In time the 
Moor, under the influence of peace, applied him- 
self to the arts of Peace, and a civilization sprang 
up based on Peace, whilst the Spaniard, always 
maintaining himself hardly, remained a soldier 
ready for the field. Religion being the battle- 
cry, the cause was ever the more sacred, and the 
question of faith became a vital one, by which 
men were judged as friend or foe, loyal or traitor. 

By degrees the Spaniards began to reconquer 
their land; always using the same battle-cry — 
the Cross against the Crescent, and in time, as we 
have seen, they achieved complete success, and 
won their final victory over the Moor in the same 
year that Columbus discovered America. 

This long struggle had a decisive influence 
on the Spanish character. Trained to war, the 
Spaniard was accustomed to blood. His re- 
ligion bred in the bone, he was a zealot, a bigot, 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA 31 

a persecutor. No new ideas were allowed to 
grow, no differences of opinion were tolerated. 
Thus when, in the general awakening of Europe, 
the new ideas had their birth and spread in other 
countries, they could not exist in Spain. Men in 
other countries began to think; in Spain it was 
not allowed. The Reformation came elsewhere; 
in Spain it never obtained a foothold; the Holy 
Office not only repressed it when it appeared, 
but made inquisition and stamped it out. Its 
very name was significant. It was called the 
Holy Office. Two hundred thousand execu- 
tions in a generation are computed to be the 
number who fell victims to its furious zeal. 
Thus, Spain cut off her thinkers, and blinded 
and crippled her people. She not only crushed 
Progress at home, but deemed it a sacred duty 
to root it up abroad. The Duke of Alva was 
sent to destroy it in the Low Countries, even if 
he had to put the whole population to the sword; 
and he did his work to his royal master's ap- 
proval. Spain built up against herself the ha- 
tred of all the Protestant world everywhere. 
Weakened as she was at home, she drew upon 
herself the deadly hatred of the enterprising 
and industrious Dutch, of the bold and ear- 
nest Huguenots, and of the great Protestant 
body of England; and now she made her last 



32 THE OLD DOMINION 

error. Inspired by zeal, stimulated by ambi- 
tion, she undertook to crush Protestantism in 
England. 

This was the opportunity of Protestantism. 
Able as Philip was, he was easily outranked by 
the extraordinary woman who sat on the English 
throne. She knew her people, and she knew 
how to govern them. She knew that Peace built 
up a people; that whilst War might bring glory, 
Peace brought power, and so she held to Peace. 
"No war, my lords," she said, "no war." Thus, 
when the time came she was strong enough to 
fight. 

She made laws that advanced her people; she 
played one party against the other at home, and 
both against other countries. She helped the 
Prince of Orange on the one hand, and pretended 
to consider a Catholic marriage on the other. 
She kept Mary Stuart a prisoner to play as need 
might demand; she persecuted Papist priests 
and sternly curbed Protestant complainers. And 
all the time she built up England. The hold 
she had on her people is admirably illustrated by 
the incident which Green relates of the Catholic 
priest, whose hand had been chopped off for his 
offense, waving the stump and crying, "God 
save Queen Elizabeth!" Yet Catholicism was 
the foe of England, and England was its foe, and 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA 33 

this the English people, including many Catho- 
lics, knew; and they were always on the watch. 
They noted with keen anxiety as well as envy 
the growing possessions of Spain in the New 
World, and were eager to interpose. For it 
was well understood now that Spain aimed at 
rivalling ancient Rome as Mistress of the World. 
In fact, Spain excelled Rome in the extent of the 
territory she governed, and was becoming more 
despotic in her sway. She undertook to rule the 
minds of men no less than their actions. And 
this hastened her downfall. She was the cham- 
pion of the Old, and England set herself to 
become the champion of the New. It has 
been well said that it became a contest between 
Spain and the Inquisition and England and 
the Bible. 

English merchants had before this often visited 
these shores and made exploration not only of 
the coast, but had on more than one occasion 
attempted some exploration of the interior. 
England, on the ground of these visitations and 
on the strength of John Cabot's first discovery, 
now laid claim to such portion of the new land 
as lay north of the actual possessions of Spain, 
and south of that which France undertook to 
claim by virtue of the expedition of Jacques 
Carder and others towards the St. Lawrence. 



34 THE OLD DOMINION 

As early as 1530 two voyages had been made 
by William Hawkins, of Plymouth, to the coast 
of Guinea, and thence to Brazil, taking with 
him cargoes of slaves — the first beginning of the 
slave-trade by Englishmen. 

Among the first, Thomas Stukeley, a gentle- 
man of Devonshire, the home of bold sea- 
captains, bred on the traditions of Saxon and 
Dane, laid broad plans to plant an English 
colony in the forbidden land, where he was 
to rule almost as an independent sovereign. 
Though he never carried out his designs, his 
plans remained a part of the history of the 
movement. 

In October, 1562, Captain John Hawkins, son 
of William of Plymouth, sailed from England 
on his first voyage to Guinea and thence to the 
West Indies with slaves, and in September, 1563, 
returned to England with much profit and with 
accounts of his voyage. He sent two ships to 
Spain, which were promptly seized there. In 
October, 1564, he sailed again on his second 
voyage, sent forth by such able patrons as the 
Earl of Pembroke, Lord Robert Dudley, the 
Lord Admiral Clinton, Sir William Cecil and 
others, and cruised the Spanish Main and on 
August 3, 1565, relieved for the time the un- 
happy Huguenot colony at Fort Caroline. 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA 35 

Thence he sailed "along the whole extent of 
our coast," as says the chronicle (observe the 
pronoun), via New Foundland, and reached 
England in September, 1565. Thus, we see 
Englishmen were now asserting their claim. 
They gave a lively description of Florida, and 
brought back with them gold, silver, pearls, 
tobacco, and other products, from which the ad- 
venturers derived great gain. The next month 
Laudonniere, Le Moine, Challeux, and such 
Huguenots as had escaped Menendez's fury, 
reached England and published accounts of the 
country. November 17, 1566, a bill passed 
Parliament enlarging the privileges of the 
Merchant Adventurers of 1555, and changing 
the company's name to "The Fellowship of 
English Merchants for Discovery of New 
Trades." 

Some time before November, 1566, Humphrey 
Gilbert, from that sea-indented southwestern 
coast of England, whose men have ever followed 
the sea, petitioned Elizabeth for privileges for 
himself and his two brothers to discover the 
northwest passage to Cathay. Soon after this 
date he petitioned the Queen for privileges for 
himself and "the heirs of Otes Gylberte" for dis- 
coveries to the Northwest. 

October 2, 1567, Captain John Hawkins sailed 



36 THE OLD DOMINION 

from Plymouth with six vessels on his third 
voyage. They cruised first to Africa and took 
four or five hundred negroes on to Dominica, but 
found that the Spaniards had been forbidden to 
trade with them, and they had substantially to 
storm Rio de la Hacha. At Carthagena they 
were repulsed and had to sail to San Juan 
d'Ulua in Mexico for repairs and supplies. 
Here they claimed the privilege of allies of the 
Spanish and were well enough received. Twelve 
Spanish ships were in the harbor with two hun- 
dred thousand pounds on board, which Hawkins 
looked on with envious eyes, but restrained him- 
self from attempting to seize. Next day a fleet 
of twelve more Spanish ships arrived. Hawkins, 
afraid to force hostilities with a friendly power, 
let them enter the harbor, having first made 
a compact for peace with the Government. 
Four days later a concerted attack was suddenly 
made on the Englishmen, and in the little 
harbor was fought a fight which, although the 
immediate issue was in favor of Spain, was the 
beginning of the end of her supremacy, and of 
England's succession to it. Only two of Haw- 
kins' ships escaped, the Minion and the Judith, 
and the Minion was so overcrowded that Haw- 
kins had to put one hundred and seventeen of 
his men ashore at Tampico; whence seventy of 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA ^ 

them, marching inland, were captured by the 
Spaniards. It was an unhappy day for Spain 
when she put in practice in that far-off harbor 
the doctrine of the Inquisition that no faith 
was to be kept with heretics. Among other 
results, she drew down upon her the implacable 
hatred of two men who, more than any others, 
contributed to humble her power and wrest 
from her her vast possessions. The com- 
mander of the little Judith, at Vera Cruz, was 
"Master Francis Drake," and from that day 
he devoted his life and genius to fighting the 
Spaniard. He ravaged the Spanish Main until 
he acquired the title in Spanish annals of "The 
Dragon." 

Another Englishman no less great than Drake, 
and more directly connected with Virginia, found 
his chief inspiration to hatred of Spain in the 
treachery shown to John Hawkins at Vera Cruz. 
The arrival of Hawkins in England with his 
story of treachery and defeat fired England from 
end to end. Just then at Oriel College was a 
young Devonshire gentleman of good family, of 
strong Protestant blood, of vast ambition and of 
extraordinary ability: Walter Raleigh, son of 
Walter Raleigh of Fardel, in Devonshire, and 
half-brother, by his mother, of John, Humphrey 
and Adrian Gilbert, whom we have seen peti- 



38 THE OLD DOMINION 

tioning the Queen for privileges to discover lands 
to the northwest, and cousin to Sir Richard 
Grenville of the Revenge. With him they were 
to do more towards making this Land English 
than any other family in England. 

Raleigh was by descent of a stout Protestant 
strain and a hater of Spain; for his father had 
been a staunch opponent of the Spanish mar- 
riage, and his mother is mentioned by Fox as 
having comforted Agnes Prest in prison in 1557, 
before she was brought to the stake. He was 
also not unfamiliar with the sea, for his father 
owned a barque which bore his cousin Peter 
Carew safely out of England after the unsuccess- 
ful Devonshire uprising of 1553. Raleigh was a 
student at Oxford when the story of the Span- 
iards' attack on Captain John Hawkins in the 
harbor of San Juan d'Ulua reached England. 
Some of his biographers say that this outrage 
sent him abroad at once to fight the Span- 
iard. It may well have been so; for as has 
been well said, "All the materials for an explo- 
sion had long been accumulating, and nothing 
but a spark was necessary to fire the train."* 
All England was fired by the story of Spanish 
treachery. Elizabeth set to work in earnest to 
be ready for the work in hand. She repaired 

*Burgon's "Life of Sir T. Gresham," I., p. 277. 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA 39 

her seaports, strengthened her navy and took 
stronger measures against the papists. The 
fight was on. 

In the autumn of 1659 there was a rising of 
the Roman Catholics in the North of England. 
She crushed it. 

On the morning of May 15, 1570, the Bull 
declaring Elizabeth deposed and her subjects 
absolved from their allegiance was found nailed 
to the Bishop of London's door. It was met 
with defiance and scorn. It only heated Eng- 
land's rage the more against Rome and all that 
supported her. It did much to make England 
Protestant. 

In 1572 the plot to assassinate Coligny having 
failed, a deeper scheme was laid, and on the 
25th of August the massacre of St. Bartholomew 
took place, the miserable Charles firing from a 
window with his own hand on his subjects. The 
figures of the number of Huguenots murdered 
throughout France in the three days of butch- 
ery differ widely, some putting them at fifteen 
hundred, some at three hundred thousand. 
They were large enough to appall Protestant- 
ism throughout Christendom. 

The house of Walsingham, the English Min- 
ister, became the sanctuary of the hunted fugi- 
tives in Paris, and England became the refuge 



40 THE OLD DOMINION 

of tens of thousands of homeless refugees from 
all over France. England was struck with more 
than horror at the crime. It was charged that 
Rome instigated the plot, a charge as hotly re- 
pudiated as laid. If, however, Rome did not 
instigate the scheme, it chanted Te Deums over 
its execution. It made the fight between the 
old Church and the new a fight to the death 
the world over, and that between the countries 
which sustained them equally crucial. 

America thus became not only a new field for 
the discovery and production of wealth, but one 
which might become a great strategic point in 
the struggle for the existence and supremacy of 
the nations. 

Most of the Englishmen set ashore by Hawkins 
in October, 1568, were in 1574 sentenced by 
the Holy Office, and sixty were sentenced to the 
galleys, whilst three were burnt at the stake. 
It was in this year (March 22, 1574) that Sir 
Humphrey Gilbert, Sir George Peckham, Mr. 
Christopher Carlile, Sir Richard Grenville, and 
others petitioned the Queen for a privilege to dis- 
cover certain lands, as they say, " fatally reserved 
for England and for the Honor of your Majesty," 
and shortly afterwards Elizabeth, through Fro- 
bisher, sent first a letter requesting, and then one 
requiring the Muscovy Company "either to at- 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA 41 

tempt the matter themselves or to grant license 
to another to do it by the northwestward." * 
This license was thereupon granted by the com- 
pany, and Frobisher made his three voyages to 
the Northwest in June-October, 1576, May- 
September, 1577, and May-October, 1578, re- 
spectively. These voyages were undertaken by 
a stock company, some of the members of which, 
together with the heirs of many of their asso- 
ciates, were interested in the expeditions which 
came some thirty years later, and established a 
permanent colony on James River. 

Spain naturally regarded all this as an infringe- 
ment of her rights. Still there was not open war. 
England was eager, her Ministers were ready, 
but Elizabeth wisely still held back from war 
and built up her strength. Her feeling, however, 
was well known; and it is illustrated by the un- 
signed "Discourse" presented to her November 
6, 1577, setting forth, "How her Majesty may 
annoy the Kinge of Spaine by fitting out a fleete 
of Shippes, under pretence of Letters Patent to 
discover and inhabit strange places, with special 
proviso for their safeties whom policy requires 
to have most annoyed — by which means, the 
doing the contrary shall be imputed to the execu- 
tors' fault, your Highness's Letters Patent being 

* Alexander Brown's "Genesis of the United States," I., 8. 



42 THE OLD DOMINION 

a manifest show that it was not your Majesty's 
pleasure so to have it," etc. The writer to this 
sly suggestion adds shrewdly, "If you will 
let us first do this we will next take the West 
Indies from Spain. You will have gold and 
silver mines and the profit of the soil. You will 
be Monarch of the Seas and out of danger from 
everyone. I will do it if you will allow me; only 
you must resolve and not delay or dally — the 
wings of man's life are plumed with the feathers 
of death."* This shows how men's minds 
were working. 

In January, 1578, Elizabeth and the United 
Netherlands made a treaty for mutual support 
against Spain. 

During these years the young soldier, Walter 
Raleigh, who was to play so important a part 
in the making of Virginia, was piling up a store 
of hatred of Spain in France and the Nether- 
lands; first under Coligny and then under the 
Prince of Orange. In 1577 his brother, Hum- 
phrey Gilbert, already a man of approved ability 
and distinction, planned his expedition to capture 
Spanish ships, sell them in Dutch ports, equip 
vessels, and sailing, as under the Prince of 
Orange, conquer all the Spanish possessions in 
America. In 1578* Elizabeth granted Sir Hum- 

* Alexander Brown's "Genesis of the United States," I., 8. 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA 43 

phrey Gilbert letters patent for the inhabiting 
and planting an English colony in America with 
a special proviso that there should be no robbing 
" by sea or land." In the fall of that year he set 
sail with seven ships and three hundred and 
fifty men. One of these ships, the Falcon, was 
commanded by Walter Raleigh himself, and, 
though the entire expedition was forced back by 
the terrible storms, it is notable that the young 
captain's vessel was the last to return, and did 
not do so until he had fought with the Spaniard 
and had run short of provisions. 

Early in 1579 Gilbert was preparing again to 
sail for America with "a puissant fleet able to 
encounter a King's power by sea," but was 
stayed by order of the Council, who were not 
yet ready for war with Spain. Raleigh was not 
one to waste time. Disappointed in his immedi- 
ate project, he at once took service in Ireland, 
where he soon distinguished himself, both by 
his dashing bravery and his bold and shrewd 
criticism of his superiors. His hardy courage, 
his strong understanding and his genius — equal 
to every situation in which he was placed — soon 
brought him into note, and he was quickly pro- 
moted to an administrative position. 

Francis Drake, who since the fight in San Juan 

♦June 11. 



44 THE OLD DOMINION 

d'Ulua had been cruising against the Spaniards 
and had caught a glimpse of the Pacific, now 
performed the greatest feat yet achieved by an 
Englishman. Having swept through the Span- 
ish seas and though deserted by his four other 
ships, having kept on in the Pelican, he sailed 
up the western coast of America, captured the 
great plate carrack of the Mar del Sud, and, 
preferring to follow Magellan around the earth 
rather than risk so rich a prize in the Atlantic, 
safely circumnavigated the globe, and in Sep- 
tember, 1580, brought his vast spoil, estimated 
at something like three million dollars, into port. 
The Spanish King demanded that the treasure 
should be returned, and Drake surrendered as 
a pirate. But the deed Drake had accomplished 
was too great to be repudiated. It filled Eng- 
land with enthusiasm. Elizabeth responded by 
knighting Drake and dining with him on his 
ship, and the Council responded by repudiating 
Spain's right to all America, and boldly assert- 
ing, on the contrary, the right to navigate freely 
the Spanish Seas and transport colonies "to all 
those parts where the Spaniards do not inhabit." 
The Spanish Ambassador threatened that "mat- 
ters would come to the cannon." Elizabeth re- 
plied, "quietly, in her most natural tone, as if 
she were telling a common story," wrote Mendoza 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA 45 

to the King, "that if I used threats of that kind, 
she would fling me into a dungeon." 

Spain knew that this was a gage of battle; 
and Philip set himself to meet it. But he was 
not in position at this time to go to war with 
England: the provinces of Flanders were still in 
revolt, and France was negotiating for Eliza- 
beth's aid to make them hers. Elizabeth fos- 
tered this hope. The assassination of the 
Prince of Orange threw Flanders into disorder 
and the death of the Duke of Alencon left Henry 
of Navarre, the head of the Huguenot party, 
the heir to the French throne, and the Catholics 
in England, finding their hopes vain, attempted 
the same tactics there. Plots were set on foot 
to assassinate Elizabeth; but were foiled, and 
Mary Stuart, who had approved from her prison 
at Fotheringay Castle the plot of Babington, fell 
a victim instead, dying like a Queen, even if she 
had not lived so. Philip was, excepting Mary's 
weak son, the next heir to the English throne. 
He knew that Spain's supremacy and what was 
as dear to him, the Roman Church, trembled 
in the balance, and he prepared to strike; for 
the signs were unmistakable. 

Meantime, the young Devonshire soldier 
left in Ireland had prospered. He had shown 
too bold a tongue and too strong a head for 



46 THE OLD DOMINION 

his superiors there and he had come to Eng- 
land to try his way at Court. He is described 
as having "a good presence in a handsome and 
well-compacted person; strong natural wit and 
a better judgment, with a bold and plausible 
tongue." No mean figure, indeed. Tradition 
cherishes the story of the way in which this 
dashing young cavalier won Elizabeth's favor. 
Modern critics of the so-called scientific school 
pretend to scout at it; but they scout at most 
things human and divine which they do not dis- 
cover themselves. It is said that Raleigh had 
not been long an attendant at Court when the 
Queen going to Greenwich was stopped by a 
muddy place in the park. The young courtier, 
waiting for no one, flung his velvet cloak in the 
mud for her Majesty to walk on. The story may 
well have been true; for it exactly accords with 
his nature. He was as bold as he was chivalrous. 
At any rate, whether this was before or after he 
secured Elizabeth's favor, he secured it, and his 
fortune was made. He was no sooner in posi- 
tion to act than he turned his energies to the at- 
tainment of that which he so passionately de- 
sired, the wresting of America from Spain, and 
its settlement as a Protestant Land by England. 
The time was propitious. 

In 1582 we find Englishmen studying with 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA 47 

more and more interest the information which 
they possessed about America. Sir Humphrey 
Gilbert was an authority on the subject. On 
November 2, 1582, after conferences with Wal- 
singham, the Secretary, and others on the sub- 
ject, articles of agreement were indented be- 
tween Sir Humphrey and such as adventured 
with him touching new lands to be discovered 
and conquered by him. There was much work 
to be done; and we find Raleigh now no longer 
a subordinate and dependant, but a coun- 
selor and patron, conferring with and assisting 
him. March 17, 1583, Raleigh wrote him 
telling him: "I have sent you a token from her 
Majesty; an ancor guided by a lady," and con- 
veying him her Majesty's good wishes for his 
voyage. March and April were spent in lay- 
ing plans and completing preparations. Mer- 
chants of London and Bristol as well as others 
contributed to the expedition, and privileges 
were obtained for the settlers who should go. 
June 11, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, having sold his 
landed estates to fit out his expedition, set out, 
sailing from "Caushen Bay neere Plymouth" 
with five vessels. One of these Raleigh had 
furnished. He himself was prevented from go- 
ing in person by the peremptory order of the 
Queen. Gilbert landed in New Foundland, 



48 THE OLD DOMINION 

August 4, and the next day took formal posses- 
sion in the name of the Crown of England. 
August 31, after cruising southwest of Cape 
Breton and compelling the fleet of thirty-six sail 
of various nations in the harbor of St. John to 
acknowledge the authority of England, whose 
laws and religion he declared binding in the 
new found land, he sailed for home. The work 
of the brave Gilbert, however, was done. On 
September 9, the little Squirrel, on which he had 
chosen to take passage, went down in a storm 
with all on board. Her gallant commander's 
last words, which were reported as heard on her 
consort, being the brave words that it was "as 
near to heaven by sea as by land." 

Another American venture was meantime fit- 
ting out. It was ever believed that a northwest 
passage could be found which would lead to the 
East and be free from the dangers of the Span- 
ish Main. On February 6, 1584, the Queen 
granted letters patent to Adrian Gilbert, Walter 
Raleigh, Dr. John Dee, John Davis and others 
for the search and discovery of the northwest 
passage to China. And under this Captain 
John Davis made three voyages. 

On March 25, 1584, when Sir Humphrey 
Gilbert's death was assured, the letters pat- 
ent issued to him were regranted, without 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA 49 

limit or reservation, to Walter Raleigh; and 
from this point the history of Virginia, Eng- 
land's first colony, stretches in an unbroken 
line. 

Raleigh laid his plans for a permanent settle- 
ment. His colonies were not only to possess 
forever the soil in the lands he should discover, 
but were to "have all the privileges of free 
denisons, and persons native of England in such 
ample manner as if they were born and person- 
ally resident in our said realm of England." 
They were, moreover, to be governed "accord- 
ing to such statutes as shall be by him or them 
established; so that the said statutes or laws con- 
form as near as conveniently may be with those 
of England, and do not oppose the Christian 
faith, or any way withdraw the people of those 
lands from our allegiance," etc. These guaran- 
tees, renewed in the charters of 1606, 1609 and 
16 1 2, were the foundation of the liberties of the 
American people on which our fathers based 
their rights when they stood out for them in 
1776. 

Two ships sailed on the 27th of April, 1584, 
and on the 4th of July reached the American 
coast, and sailing northward found the entrance 
of the harbor (probably of New Inlet) and, after 
returning thanks to God, put ashore and took 



50 THE OLD DOMINION 

possession in the name "of the Queen's most 
excellent Majestie, as rightful Queen and Prin- 
cess of the same," and afterwards delivered the 
same over to Sir Walter Raleigh. Natives com- 
ing aboard, they were asked the name of the 
land, and their reply, Win-gan-da-coa, was mis- 
taken as the name. 

The newcomers made some exploration, in- 
cluding an island called Roanoke, and found the 
natives friendly. They then returned to Eng- 
land, taking with them two natives, and gave an 
enthusiastic account of the new land which they 
described as "the most plentiful, sweet, fruitful 
and wholesome of all the world," and the people 
as " most gentle, loving and faithful, void of all 
guile and treason, and such as live after the 
manner of the Golden Age." 

Elizabeth graciously accorded the privileges 
proposed by Raleigh, giving to this new land a 
name in honor of her maiden state, and it was 
called Virginia. Raleigh was knighted for his 
service and given the title of "Lord and Governor 
of Virginia." 

The fitting out of the colony went swiftly for- 
ward, and on the 9th of April, 1585, Sir Richard 
Grenville sailed with seven ships carrying 
"one hundred householders, and many things 
necessary to begin a new State." The head of 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA 51 

the colony was to be Ralph Lane, who was 
called from Ireland to undertake "the Voyage 
to Virginia for Sir Walter Raleigh at her Majes- 
ty's command." A jealousy sprang up between 
Lane and Grenville, but on the 26th of June 
(1585) they came to anchor in Ocracoke Inlet. 
On the nth of July Grenville crossed Pimlico 
Sound and discovered three Indian towns; 
where, shortly afterwards, a silver cup having 
been stolen by the Indians, an act of reprisal 
followed in the burning of the Indians' corn and 
villages, and the long contest between the Eng- 
lish and the Indians, so fatal to the latter, was 
begun. Grenville landed the colony at Roanoke 
Island and sailed for England August 25, 
promising to return by the following Easter. 
Lane built a fort and then began to explore the 
country. He went southward some eighty miles, 
and northward about one hundred and thirty 
miles, and as far as Elizabeth River. He also 
ascended the Roanoke River, perhaps as far as 
Halifax. Here he found that the tribes who 
had been friendly on his first visit had become 
hostile. He was told that the river came out of 
a rock on the shores of the Western Ocean and 
ran through a land rich in minerals, so, though 
provisions gave out and the men were reduced 
to eating dogs, they pushed on. In time, how- 



52 THE OLD DOMINION 

ever, even this provision failed and they returned. 
Lane now found it necessary to divide his men 
into three parties to maintain them, one of 
which he sent to Croatan Island, and another 
to Hatorask. In a short time a plot by King 
Penisapau to murder the whites was divulged 
by a hostage named Skyco, and Lane prompt- 
ly met it by striking the first blow and slay- 
ing Penisapau and seven or eight of his 
leading men. 

Meantime, affairs in England had progressed: 
Philip had for three years been collecting such 
a fleet as had never sailed since the days of 
Xerxes, and its object was well understood. 
Sir Francis Drake had been called to the sea 
again, a service for which he was ever more than 
ready, and taking the offensive, though war was 
not yet declared, had sailed to the West Indies 
and sacked Santiago, St. Augustine and Cartage- 
na, and was now sailing home to "singe the 
Spanish King's beard" by burning his vessels 
in the very harbor of Corunna. He reached 
Roanoke Island on the ioth of June and relieved 
the colonists, and finding that Lane declined 
to return to England, handsomely offered him 
one of his ships. The only one, however, which 
he could spare that could enter the harbor (the 
Francis), being blown out to sea, Lane and 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA 53 

his men accepted Drake's offer and returned 
to England. Meantime Raleigh had been busy. 
Soon after their departure Raleigh's first supply- 
ship sent for their relief arrived, but finding 
the colony gone, returned to England. Fifteen 
days later Sir Richard Grenville arrived with 
three ships fully provisioned, but finding no one, 
he, too, returned to England, leaving behind him 
to hold possession fifteen men with two years' 
provisions. 

Lane brought with him to England a descrip- 
tion of the country, and also an account of 
another and far better harbor of which he had 
learned, a few days' journey to the northward. 
Raleigh with undiminished enthusiasm imme- 
diately set himself to work to found a colony on 
this harbor. He granted a charter to thirty-two 
persons, of whom nineteen were merchants of 
London who put in their money, and thirteen, 
who were to come personally, were styled "The 
Governor and Assistants of the City of Raleigh 
in Virginia." Of these nineteen merchants, ten 
were afterwards subscribers to the company 
which settled Jamestown. John White was 
selected for Governor of the Colony, and the ex- 
pedition of three ships was under charge of 
Simon Ferdinando. It was claimed that Ferdi- 
nando, being a Spaniard, was guilty of treachery. 



54 THE OLD DOMINION 

At least, he was guilty of disobedience. His 
orders were first to take the men off of Roanoke 
and then to sail to the Chesapeake. Instead, on 
reaching Hatorask (July 22, 1587), where White 
took a pinnace and forty men to go and relieve 
the little colony left at Roanoke Island, he gave 
the sailors orders that none of the men were to 
be brought back, claiming that it was too late in 
the season to seek a new location for the colony. 
They were forced, therefore, to spend the winter 
at the island. White found on his arrival that 
the men left there had been murdered, a not un- 
common fate of colonists. The arrival of a 
small vessel of the expedition, however, brought 
the number of souls on the island up to one 
hundred and twenty. 

Among the new colonists were seventeen 
women, the first English women who had come 
to America. They had not been there long when 
Eleanor Dare, a daughter of the Governor, 
White, gave birth to a daughter, who, as the first 
English child born on the continent was christ- 
ened Virginia. When the time came for the re- 
turn of the ships to England, White was unani- 
mously requested to return with them to set forth 
the needs of the colony. Although averse to 
leaving, he consented and left the colony, reach- 
ing England November 5. He found England in 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA 55 

great excitement over the threatened Spanish 
invasion for which Philip was massing his ships. 
Raleigh, Grenville and Lane were all members 
of the Council of War, and Raleigh was urging 
the policy of England's defending herself at sea 
rather than waiting for her antagonist to assail 
her on land. He was at work drilling troops, but 
he found time to fit out a small fleet for his 
colonizing work. Every ship, however, was im- 
pressed, and it was not until April 22, 1588, that 
White got off with two small vessels. They had 
not proceeded far when they had a fight with 
Spanish ships and were forced to put back to 
England. 

On the nineteenth day of July, 1688, the sails 
of the vast fleet which Spain was sending to 
subjugate England and overthrow Protestantism 
were descried from the Lizard. It was the land 
of " Jack, the Giant-Killer. " And for some time 
Jack had been preparing to meet the Giant, 
whose shadow had so long rested over England. 
Beacons flamed from headland to headland, 
and from shire to shire; England made herself 
ready for the final struggle on which was to rest 
her civilization, as more than a hundred years 
later she made ready to meet Napoleon in his 
victorious career of conquering the world. 
From port to port and from hamlet to hamlet 



56 THE OLD DOMINION 

the news flew on the wings of flame, and when 
the vast Spanish fleet entered the Channel every 
man who could board a craft was girded for the 
fray. The war-cry was England against Spain, 
and Catholic and Protestant, no longer divided, 
stood shoulder to shoulder to withstand the in- 
vader. The Admiral of the English fleet was 
Lord Howard of Effingham, the head of the 
Catholic Peers of England. Behind him sailed 
Drake and Raleigh and Grenville, and a long 
line of Protestant fighters. 

The history of that long and epochal battle 
is too well known to need repetition here. 

Spaniards have never lacked courage or gal- 
lantry; but on the side of the English ships, 
though they were smaller and weaker in arma- 
ment, was love of home — the spirit of freedom, 
and the desperate courage which they ever give 
to a freedom-loving people. For days the furious 
battle raged through the English Channel, the 
sea-dogs of England dashing in to cut out the 
Spanish ships one by one; and then after Drake 
had burnt a number of their vessels with fire- 
ships in the harbor, where they sought refuge, 
the Spanish fleet, broken and dismayed, made 
its way as best it could into the North Sea in 
a desperate attempt to sail around Britain, 
only to fall a prey to its fierce storms, and to 



THE BEGINNING OF AMERICA 57 

scatter its wrecks all the way from the Hebrides 
to the south coast of Ireland. It was the end of 
Spanish supremacy. Overweighted with wealth 
and wealth's evil offspring, arrogance, from this 
time her star declined, and in the morning skies 
rose the resplendent star of a freer and a broader 
Civilization. 



II 



JAMESTOWN, THE BIRTHPLACE OF THE 
AMERICAN PEOPLE 



" In Kingdoms the first Foundation or Plantation is of more 
Dignitie and Merit than all that followeth." — Sir Francis Bacon 



/^LOSE to the northern bank of the winding 
^^ and placid James, some three score miles 
above where it pours its waters through Hamp- 
ton Roads into that inland sea, the Chesapeake, 
into which flow well-nigh a score of rivers, 
some of them among the noblest on the globe, 
lies a narrow island. Steeped in the sunshine, 
or soaked by the rains, it has until but yester- 
day, as it were, lain asleep for the last two cen- 
turies and more, just as it had lain, with the 
exception of about seventy years, since the 
Powhatan at flood cut it from its neighboring 
shore. At the upper end, on the river side, 
in a clump of trees, and what was until lately 
a tangle of shrubbery, on the edge of which are 

piled the remains of an old redout, a relic of the 

58 



JAMESTOWN 59 

Civil War, stands a brick church-tower — a single 
surviving fragment of the first Protestant church 
built in America. About it lie the traces of a once 
extensive graveyard, where of late the pious 
zeal of loyal women of the Land has uncovered 
and preserved a few broken tombs graved with 
armorial escutcheons and bearing the names of 
a very few among those whose ashes have lain 
for nearly three hundred years embosomed in 
Virginia's soil. 

The foundation of a later State-House has 
been exhumed near by; and the eye of the born 
antiquary may detect out on the plateau in the 
sun the faint traces of ancient streets and houses, 
but to the ordinary passer-by, there has been 
until just now nothing to distinguish it from the 
ordinary Virginia river-plantation dozing in the 
sunshine. 

Yet, here on this very spot, at the head of this 
little island was Jamestown, the Birthplace of 
the American People: the first rude cradle in 
which was swaddled the tiny infant that in time 
has sprung up to be among the leaders of the 
nations; the torch-bearer of civilization, and 
the standard-bearer of popular government 
throughout the world. Here was planted three 
hundred years ago the first surviving colony 
of the English-speaking Race which has since 



60 THE OLD DOMINION 

occupied this continent and spread over the 
globe. Here was established the first outpost 
and earliest settlement of the American nation, 
since then dedicated to the principle that "Gov- 
ernment of the People, by the People, and for 
the People shall not perish from the earth." 

And this in brief is the story of it, and the 
manner in which it came about. 

On the morning of the 13th day of May, 
1607, James I. being then King of England, 
Scotland, Wales and Ireland, and Philip III. 
being King of Spain, the American Continent 
when the sun rose belonged absolutely to Spain. 
When the sun set, could the eyes of men have 
read the future, they would have seen that it 
belonged to England. This was accomplished 
by a little band of six score men who " after long 
toil and pain" landed that day about the hour 
of four from three small ships: the Discovery, 
the Good Speed, and the Sarah* Constant, and 
planted the flag of the Anglo-Saxon on the point 
which they promptly proceeded to fortify and 
call " James Fort" or " James Town," after their 
king. 

The day that a besieged city capitulates is not 
so truly the day of its capture as the day on 

* The names Sarah and Susan are both used in the earlier 
records, but Sarah is the name found in reports of the Company. 



JAMESTOWN 6 1 

which the besiegers plant their standard upon 
the walls never again to be taken down. So, 
much more here. The approach had been long 
and arduous. Effort after effort, attempt after 
attempt, had been made to make a breach in 
Spain's extensive defenses. As has been de- 
scribed in the previous paper, a break had 
actually been made under Sir Walter Raleigh's 
inspiring direction twenty-odd years before by a 
gallant and devoted band on Roanoke Island, 
some score of leagues to the southward. But 
the assault had finally failed; the little band on 
Roanoke Island had disappeared into the mys- 
terious limbo of Croatan, that vague land of 
Romance. It was this new band of settlers who 
on this May day, 1607, finally seized and perma- 
nently held the outpost, which was the key to 
the continent, and led to the supremacy of the 
Saxon Race, with its laws, its religion and its 
civilization in North America. 

As a matter of mere history, it ought to be 
known that North America was firmly settled 
by the English people, and the Anglo-Saxon 
civilization was established in this country be- 
fore the Mayflower, under the encouragement 
and charter of the Virginia Company, brought 
her body of devoted Pilgrims to the shores of 
North Virginia. 



62 THE OLD DOMINION 

This happened at Jamestown. And unless 
this had happened at Jamestown, it is far from 
improbable, that the French colonies planted 
under the charter of Louis XIII. , on what is 
now the coast of Maine, which were rooted out 
in 1612-13, by the expeditions under Samuel 
Argall, sent for that purpose by Sir Thomas 
Dale, Governor of Virginia, might by 1620 have 
extended so far to the southward as to seize 
the coast and prevent any settlement of the 
English between them and the Dutch colony 
on Manhattan Island. Moreover, but for the 
development of the Virginia colony, in which the 
People and Church of England were so deeply 
interested, the destinies of the nations might 
have been changed, and under the pusillanimous 
James, who even as late as 1618 sacrificed Sir 
Walter Raleigh to the enmity of the Spaniard, 
Spain, with her civilization, might have so firmly 
established herself on the shores of Virginia that 
no English settlement could have taken root. 

By this time the colony of Virginia, first 
rooted at Jamestown, and fertilized with the 
ashes of over three thousand English settlers, 
had spread until it had become a Common- 
wealth, with settlements extending almost un- 
brokenly over a hundred miles into the interior; 
with several towns, one of them with houses 



JAMESTOWN 63 

partly of brick; with forts guarding the mouths 
of the rivers; with a charter which secured for- 
ever to all colonists in Virginia, and their 
posterity from sea to sea, the rights, privileges 
and immunities of native-born citizens of Great 
Britain; with a Vice-Regal Court, a Legislative 
Assembly composed of twenty-two burgesses 
elected by the people, with an Established 
Church, Monthly Courts, a University projected 
and endowed with ten thousand acres of land, 
and a College already begun for the education of 
the Indian population, under a competent mas- 
ter, endowed with a thousand acres of land, for 
which over fifteen hundred pounds (equal to ten 
times the amount now) had been subscribed; 
with a hospital "containing fourscore lodgings 
and beds sent to furnish it." In fine, with a 
civilization which, though at the time it lacked 
the comforts and the expansion which it later 
attained, contained the substantial principles of 
the later civilization which throughout her entire 
Colonial period, and for over a half century 
afterwards, made Virginia the first colony in 
America in influence, as she was in time, and 
more than any other contributed to the making 
of this nation. 

That this happened at Jamestown, and that 
Cavalier and Roundhead, Churchman and Puri- 



64 THE OLD DOMINION 

tan alike, owe the same debt to the Jamestown 
colony, the historian can now show; not from 
partisan histories, but from the facts taken from 
the original records, many of which have only 
of late become generally known. 

In consequence of Columbus's discovery of 
the New World and of the discoveries and ex- 
plorations of the southern parts of the new-found 
hemisphere by Spanish navigators, Spain had 
grown until, by the middle of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, she was not only the richest kingdom of 
the world, but the most arrogant, and the most 
powerful. She promised to become greater than 
Rome had been under the Caesars. Her empire 
covered twice as great an extent of land as that 
over which Rome's eagles ever flew, and her sway 
extended over many times as broad a main. She 
made it death to fly any other flag than her own 
in those seas which have retained almost to our 
own days the name of the Spanish Main. Indeed, 
she had it in her power to have been Mistress of 
the World in a far larger sense than Rome ever 
was. But she lacked the wisdom of Rome. 
Not content with commanding the actions of her 
teeming myriads of subjects stretching from the 
Baltic to the Pacific, she undertook to assert 
her imperial sovereignty over their minds as 
well, and this sovereignty was already becoming 



JAMESTOWN 65 

effete. Its insignia were the outworn robes of a 
prelatical ecclesiasticism, bent on perpetuating 
its power and prepared to put to the sword every 
one who did not bow abjectly before its dog- 
matism and arrogance. 

Happily for the world, just at this time the 
Crown of England fell on the brow of the able 
and hard-headed daughter of Henry VIII. and 
Anne Boleyn, the great Elizabeth, and yet more 
happily, she found herself at the head of an 
awakened and eager people alive in every fibre 
of their being and most of all alive to the peril 
of allowing Spain to go on unchecked in her 
career of conquest over body and mind. 

The rest of Europe was growing anxious under 
Spain's advancing power, and Francis I. had 
sent his powerful rival, Charles V., a message 
asking by what right he claimed the earth. 

There was some sort of claim to discovery 
under the patronage of England by John Cabot 
and his sons. This was the ostensible peg on 
which was now hung the right of further ex- 
ploration and settlement. But it is probable 
that even had the Cabots never sailed beyond 
the Downs, the Sea Dogs of Devon and Corn- 
wall, of Bucks and Kent and Surrey with their 
Norse blood, would have set their prows into 
the west where El Dorado, the Fountain of 



66 THE OLD DOMINION 

Gold, was flowing hard by the scarcely less 
mythical Fountain of Youth. Within a few 
years Fame was filling her trump with the names 
of a score of these captains — of whom many 
survive to-day: John Hawkins, Sir Francis 
Drake, Sir Martin Frobisher, Captain Christo- 
pher Newport, Sir Richard Grenville and the 
brave Gilberts, Sir Adrian, Sir Humphrey and 
Sir John, half-brothers of Walter Raleigh, and 
Sir Walter himself, bold adventurer; fine gentle- 
man; patron of explorers; favorite of Queen 
Elizabeth; godfather and first president or gov- 
ernor of Virginia. 

Almost the whole of the sixteenth century 
was spent in one long contest between the two 
civilizations: the Latin and the Saxon. Into 
the contest entered every principle that two 
widely diverse civilizations represent, and every 
feeling that can animate nations. Patriotic zeal; 
religious fervor; bigotry; personal adherence, 
or hostility; lust of power and lust of gold — 
all united to make the contest one of contin- 
uous war between the two peoples, if not the 
governments of the two countries. The wealth, 
the power and the arrogance of Spain, with her 
bigotry, aroused the people of England to a 
pitch which had possibly not been known since 
the Norman Conquest. 



JAMESTOWN 67 

Although England claimed the middle zone of 
North America by virtue of the discovery made 
in 1497 by John Cabot and his sons, under 
patent of Henry VII., of which event the only 
official record is the item noted in the '" Privy 
Purse" of Henry VII., "Ten pounds to hym 
who found the New Land," the continent 
was won a hundred years later in the war with 
Spain, which lasted substantially through the 
latter half of the sixteenth century. 

For a generation the great sea captains of 
England had been training in Western waters 
and garnering up implacable hate against Spain. 
Sir Philip Sidney had written vigorously of 
England's opportunity and duty; Hawkins, 
Drake, the Gilberts, Grenville, and others had 
flouted Spain and fought her from Cadiz to 
Peru. And now Sir Walter Raleigh and his half- 
brothers, the Gilberts, gentlemen of Devon, bred 
on traditions of sea-fighters, and hereditary haters 
of Spain, had definitely set before themselves the 
colonization of the region claimed by England. 

It was a perilous business. Spain had de- 
clared it piracy to sail the western seas under 
any other flag than her own. Menendez, the 
Spanish Governor, had ruthlessly butchered 
Coligny's Huguenot colony started at St. Augus- 
tine on the St. John's River. 



68 THE OLD DOMINION 

The struggle was on between Spain and Eng- 
land — and not only between the countries and 
the governments, but between the two races and 
the two schools of thought; the two forms of 
religion. The Latin and the Saxon had locked 
in a wrestle which was to end only with the 
absolute supremacy of the one and the subjec- 
tion of the other. And Spain was now seeking 
to destroy England's power forever. 

Menendez's ferocity was destined to make 
such a lodgment in the minds of Englishmen 
as to be mentioned as a warning in the instruc- 
tions given to the first colonists of the race who 
effected a permanent settlement. 

The treachery of the Spaniards at St. Juan 
d'Ulua arrayed against her two of the most 
potent enemies she ever had to face: Among 
John Hawkins's men was one, who from his fury 
against Spain came to be known later as the 
"Dragon of the Seas," young Francis Drake. 
To the other, who later came to be known as 
"The Shepherd of the Seas," more, possibly, than 
to any other one man in England, Spain owed 
the wresting of North America from her grasp. 
For Sir Walter Raleigh inspired and equipped and 
dispatched the fleets which opened the way to the 
settlement of Virginia and of America. He gave 
Virginia her name and was her first governor. 



JAMESTOWN 69 

Previous to the final and successful effort there 
had been several attempts to plant here colonies 
fitted out by Sir Walter Raleigh, which failed. 
That on Roanoke Island might have succeeded 
had not the Spanish war and the peril of the 
Spanish Armada kept supplies from being sent 
over seas to their relief. 

The destruction of the Spanish Armada left 
the seas open for England's schemes for coloniza- 
tion to go into effect. 

The victory of England was complete; but it 
had been at the cost of her utmost resources. 
March 7, 1589, Raleigh signed an indenture 
as Chief Governor of Virginia with Thomas 
Smith and others, merchants of London, and 
John White and others, gentlemen, transferring 
the Colony in Virginia and the planting thereof 
in his domain to this Company, and contribut- 
ing 100 pounds towards the planting of the 
Christian religion there, and reserving one-fifth 
part of the gold and silver for his share. 

When, on August 27, 1587, White, the gov- 
ernor of Raleigh's new colony on Roanoke 
Island, sailed for England for supplies he left 
behind him eighty-nine men, seventeen women, 
and eleven children, among them his daughter, 
Eleanor, and her infant daughter, Virginia Dare, 
the first English child born on this hemisphere. 



7 o THE OLD DOMINION 

When White reached England, November 2, 
war had, as we have seen, become flagrant with 
Spain, and he was unable to return until after 
the destruction of the Spanish Armada left the 
sea once more comparatively open and England 
once more free to give her attention to the 
work of expansion. Before leaving Roanoke 
White had provided that in case the colonists 
should have any reason to change their seat, 
the place to which they should move should be 
so posted that he might be able to follow them. 
White was not able to get away finally to his 
colony until 1590, when three ships, furnished 
at the charge of Mr. John Watts, being ready 
to sail for the Indies, "to make spoil of the 
Spaniards," being detained under the orders 
prohibiting ships from sailing, Raleigh obtained 
permission for them to sail on condition that 
they should take White back to Virginia. They 
would, however, take no one but White himself, 
and so he» returned alone to Virginia. They 
cast anchor off Hatorask on the 15th of August, 
but there was no one there; the settlement had 
been abandoned. The settlers had not been 
murdered; for they had buried boxes containing 
books, etc., which some one had found and dug 
up afterwards. "Some tracks of feeting they 
found upon a sandy bank," says old Strachey 



JAMESTOWN 71 

("First Travails into Va.," Brita., p. 152) "and 
on a tree curiously carved these Roman letters, 
C. R. O., which gave them hope that they might 
be removed to Croatan. ,, This White interpreted 
to mean that the colony had moved to the 
Island of Croatan, from which they had previous- 
ly taken the friendly Indian, Manteo. White 
begged the Captain to take him to Croatan, 
which he agreed to do, but a violent storm pre- 
vented him and he determined to sail straight 
for England, where they arrived October 24, 
1590. This was White's fifth and last voyage 
(as he stated to Hackluyt in a letter in 1593). 
He fell into a despondency after his disappoint- 
ment. There appears to have been a tribe of 
Croatans in the interior, at some distance from 
the coast, but diligent search failed to find trace 
of the lost settlers at that time. And since that 
day the researches of investigators have scarcely 
been more successful. The little Virginia colony 
with the babe, Virginia Dare, simply faded 
away into the mystic Land of Romance. Some 
effort has been made to prove that there exists 
in the interior of North Carolina a body of 
people who are rather assumed than shown to 
have the mixed blood of the Indian and the 
White, and have vague traditions of being thus 
descended. Twenty years later when a perma- 



72 THE OLD DOMINION 

nent settlement was effected on the banks of the 
James, one hundred miles to the northward, 
one boy was found with yellow hair and a lighter 
skin than the Indians have, and it has been con- 
jectured that he might have been the offspring 
of some one of the colonists, but his age did not 
admit of this explanation, and no man knows 
to this day what became of them. 

The blotting out of this colony was a heavy 
blow to English enterprise, and as one of the old 
writers declared, "all hopes of Virginia thus aban- 
doned, it lay dead and obscured from 1590 to this 
year, 1602." By this time, the end of the long war 
with Spain was in sight, and the English public, 
the English Church, and the English Govern- 
ment once more turned their eyes to that far off, 
but "sweet, wholesome and fruitful country." 

Though the efforts made had all failed, the 
spirit still remained. Even the death of the 
great Queen in 1603 was not able to quench it. 
National pride; religious zeal; the spirit of ad- 
venture and of cupidity, all combined to make 
the effort time after time to establish a foothold 
where all previous efforts had failed. 

Just as in our fathers' time, adventure and 
the love of gold drew the Argonauts and their 
followers around the Horn and across the arid 
plains of the West to California, and in our own 



JAMESTOWN 73 

time the same motives have sent thousands to 
Alaska and South Africa; so then the trophies 
of Spain's fortune-hunters would not let the 
adventurers of Great Britain rest. Hatred of 
Spain and envy of the plate-ships of Peru drew 
them from the Devon coast. The tales of 
Spain's El Dorado untied the purse-strings of 
the London companies. But there was another 
and loftier motive. The zeal of the children of 
those who had suffered at Smithfield and Tower 
Hill under the Queen of Philip II. could not 
with languor see the church of Torquemada and 
Alva bringing vast tribes within their fold. 

The cities of England were full of soldiers re- 
turned from the wars in the Low Countries; the 
spirit of adventure was abroad, and much more 
the hatred of Spain. The State reflected it; 
the poet sang of it; the writers wrote of it. 

About 1590 Elizabeth granted a commission 
to Richmond Greynville of Stow and others, 
for discovering lands in the Arctic Ocean to the 
domains of Great Cam of Cathaia. August 26, 
1591, Captain Thomas Cavendish sailed from 
England on his last fatal voyage. In 1592 
(January 25), Captain Christopher Newport 
sailed from England with three ships and a pin- 
nace for the West Indies, where he took and 
"spoiled" several Spanish towns. In this same 



74 THE OLD DOMINION 

year an expedition was organized for an attack 
on the Spanish settlements at Panama, the near- 
est way to the South Sea, and the key to the pos- 
sessions of Spain and America. The advent- 
urers provided thirteen vessels and the Queen two 
ships of war. Sir Walter Raleigh was to have had 
command of the expedition as Admiral; buthewas 
again balked in his enterprise by the peremptory 
order of the Queen to resign and return forthwith 
to Court. He, however, laid ofF the plan of the 
expedition, and Sir John Burrough, his vice-ad- 
miral, and Captain Christopher Newport, with 
other vessels, captured the great carrack, the 
Madre de Dios, which Edwards in his "Life of 
Raleigh" says "was in one sense the most bril- 
liant feat of privateering ever accomplished, even 
in the days of Queen Elizabeth, and a piece of 
mercantile enterprise pregnant with results. " 

All through '93 and '94 the adventures to the 
American shores went on under the influence of 
Raleigh's enterprising genius. In '94 he sent a 
small expedition to Guiana, in South America, 
and in '95 (February 6) he sailed himself on 
his famous voyage to that coast. The interest 
in America increased throughout '96, '97, '98 
and '99, and many new adventurers were en- 
listed, some to invest their property, and others 
to adventure their persons in the work of making 



JAMESTOWN 75 

America English. Raleigh himself never re- 
linquished his interest in the work, and vessel 
after vessel sailed to Guiana, or to some other 
point on the coast in his interest. In 1602 
he sent Samuel Mace of Weymouth on a ves- 
sel to Virginia, and in that same year Cap- 
tain Bartholomew Gosnold and others voyaged 
to our New England coast. On the 24th of 
March, 1603, Queen Elizabeth died at Rich- 
mond, and on the same day James VI. of Scot- 
land was proclaimed King of England as James 
I. That day Raleigh fell. He made the mis- 
take of opposing James and espousing the cause 
of Arabella Stuart, and James never forgave 
him. "I have heard of you but rawly, Sir Wal- 
ter," he said to him acridly when later on Raleigh 
went to him to offer him his submission. In time 
he pretended to receive his submission, but it 
was Raleigh's first offense, coupled with James's 
cowardly fear of Spain, which afterwards sacri- 
ficed the greatest colonizer whom England has 
ever known, to the hatred of Spain. Raleigh, 
however, had set on foot too great a work for even 
James to undo, and on the 10th of May Captain 
Bartholomew Gilbert set sail for the Chesepian 
Bay in the country of Virginia. Gilbert, his sur- 
geon, and several officers and men went on shore 
on their arrival, and were all killed by the Indians. 



76 THE OLD DOMINION 

In 1605 Captain George Weymouth and 
others, some of whom had been with Raleigh in 
Guiana, visited again the North Virginia, later 
the New England coast, and that same year 
Champlain entered the present harbor of Ply- 
mouth on that coast. 

Peace was signed by Philip III. and Lord 
Howard at Valadolid in 1605 (June 25). 

This Treaty of Peace opened the way to 
the immediate colonization of America by the 
English. 

Indeed, peace had already become assured 
for England, and, under the conviction that 
Spain must make peace, steps were already 
being taken to recover the lost land. 

A month later Captain George Weymouth, 
who had been cruising along the coast of North 
Virginia, returned to England taking with him 
five Indians; "which accident," says Sir Ferdi- 
nando Gorges, later President of the Plymouth 
Company, " must be acknowledged as the means, 
under God, of putting on foot, and giving life to 
our Plantations." Weymouth was arrested after- 
wards under suspicion of setting forth to betray 
the Virginia Colony to Spain, but at this time he 
was engaged in trying to enlist others in Ameri- 
can colonization. So great was the interest in 
Virginia that two companies were formed and two 



JAMESTOWN 77 

settlements were planned: one on the southerly 
shores of Virginia, the other on the northerly. 

Thus, in 1606, despite the failure of all earlier 
attempts, an expedition was ready to set forth to 
try to seize once more the American continent 
for England, her King and People. 

A great obstacle had been the difficulty of 
securing the active co-operation of the Govern- 
ment in the work. Experiment had abundantly 
proved that such aid was necessary for final 
success. This was now partly secured. 

On April -H, 1606, the warrant for the pro- 
posed Virginia charter was prepared by the 
Attorney-General, Sir Edward Coke, and was 
passed under the great seal of the Lord Chan- 
cellor, Sir Thomas Egerton. It was stated to 
be "for the furtherance of so noble a work as 
the planting of Christianity among the Hea- 
thens," and claimed for the Crown of England 
the whole of North America between 34 and 
45 degrees north latitude, "commonly called 
Virginia." 

All England was now astir, and on the 10th 
day of April, 1606, letters patent were granted 
Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Richard 
Hakluit, Edward Maria Wingfield, Raleigh 
Gilbert and others, for two separate colonies 
and plantations to be made in Virginia, and 



7 8 THE OLD DOMINION 

other parts and territories of America. Both 
companies were incorporated by this one charter. 
The first colony was authorized to seat their 
plantation in some convenient place between 31 
(about Brunswick, Ga.) and 41 degrees North 
latitude (about New York City), and when 
so located they were to have fifty miles north 
and fifty miles south of said location, as well as 
one hundred miles to sea, and one hundred 
miles within the land. The second colony 
was authorized to seat their plantation be- 
tween 38 (about the southern point of Mary- 
land) and 45 degrees north latitude (about 
Halifax, N. S.), and were granted the same ex- 
tent of territory with the first, provided, how- 
ever, that they should not plant within one 
hundred miles of each other. This charter set 
forth, among other things, the privileges and 
franchises which Raleigh had obtained before 
for his first colony, and on which our liberties 
are based to-day. 

Preparations which were, no doubt, already 
on foot were pressed forward rapidly to send out 
the colony immediately to take possession and 
occupy the goodly land which Raleigh had so 
long been trying to reach, and to secure the land 
of the Thespians or Chesepians. It was a 
dangerous adventure, for the Spaniards were 



JAMESTOWN 79 

ever present in their minds, and the mysterious 
fate of the last colony at Roanoke must have 
been still a matter of constant discussion and 
conjecture, which kept very fresh in the minds 
of men the perils of adventure in those distant 
shores. Cupidity, ambition, the chance of 
sudden wealth and power, and fame, like those 
which had come to Frobisher and Drake, to 
Hawkins and the Gilberts; religious zeal, patriot- 
ism, all combined to turn men's minds to the 
new, and, as yet, unknown land. 

The Stage is ever apt to reflect the current 
feeling of the time, and Virginia became the 
theme of the Stage. The play, "Eastward 
Hoe," written by George Chapman, Ben Jonson, 
and John Marston, was entered for publication 
at "Stationers Hall," on the 4th of September, 
1605, and gives, though in the form of comedy 
and of exaggeration, what was no doubt in the 
minds of many men at that time. "Quick- 
silver," " Sea - Gull," " Spendall," "Scape- 
Thrift," were among the characters. "Sir Pet- 
ronel Flash " was the first of a long and illustri- 
ous line of Virginian colonels, and their talk was 
so racy that the authors presently got them- 
selves into prison, not indeed for lampooning 
Virginia or Virginia colonels, but for their gibes 
at the Scots, which was a matter which lay much 



80 THE OLD DOMINION 

nearer the hearts of Sir James Murray and the 
King. I venture to quote from the second scene 
of the third act. 

Enter Sea Gull, Spendall and Scape-Thrift in the 
Blewe Anchor Tavern with a Drawer: 

Sea Gull. Come, Drawer, pierce your neatest 
Hogshead and let's have cheer not fit for your Billings- 
gate Tavern, but for our Virginian Colonel who will 
be here instantly. 

Drawer. You shall have all things fit, sir; please 
you have any more wine ? 

Spendall. More wine, slave, whether you drink 
it or spill it; drawe more. 

Sea Gull. Come, boys, Virginia longs 'till we 
share the rest of her maidenhead. 

Spendall. Why, is she inhabited already with any 
English ? 

Sea Gull. A whole country of English is there, 
man, bread of those that were left there in '79, they 
have married with the Indians, and make 'em to bring 
forth as beautiful faces as any we have in England, 
and, therefore, the Indians are so in love with them 
that all the treasure they have they lay at their feet. 

Scape-Thrift. But is there such treasure there 
as I have heard ? 

Sea Gull. I tell thee that gold is more plentiful 
there than copper is with us, and for as much red 
copper as I can bring, I will have thrice the weight 
in gold. Why, man, all their dripping pans are pure 



JAMESTOWN 8 1 

gold, and all the chains with which they chain up 
their streets are massie gold; all the prisoners they 
take are fettered in gold, and for rubies and diamonds 
they go forth on holy days and gather them up by the 
sea-shore to hang on their children's coats, and stick 
in their children's caps, as commonly as our children 
wear saffron gilt groates with holes in them. 

Scape-Thrift. And is it a pleasant country with all ? 

Sea Gull. As ever the sun shined on. Full of all 
kinds of excellent viands, wild boar is as common 
there as our tamest bacon is here; venison as mutton, 
and then you shall live freely there without sergeants 
or courtiers or lawyers, and intelligenceers; (only a 
few industrious Scots, perhaps, who are, indeed, dis- 
persed over the face of the whole earth, but as for them, 
there are no greater friends to Englishmen and England 
when they are out on 't in the world, and, for my part, 
I would a hundred thousand of them were there; for 
we are all one-countrymen now you know, and we 
should find ten times more comfort of them there than 
here. Then for your means to advancement; there 
it is simple and not preposterously mixed. You may 
be an alderman there, and never be a scavenger; you 
may be any other officer there and never be a slave; 
you may come to preferment and never be a pandar; 
to riches and fortune, and have never the more villany 
nor the less wit. Besides, there we shall have no more 
law than conscience, and not too much of either; serve 
God enough; eat enough; drink enough, and "enough 
is as good as a feast." 



8 2 THE OLD DOMINION 

It was this last speech of Captain Sea Gull 
which got Ben Jonson and his friends in jail. 

The close of the wars had left London full 
of soldiers out of employment, who had returned 
and were ready for anything which promised 
them the bettering of their fortunes. To these 
men Virginia must have commended herself, 
and one of them was to become in the first colony 
the most able and noted soldier and adminis- 
trator. He had returned from a youth of ad- 
venture in the south-eastern part of Europe, 
and had influence enough to have himself ap- 
pointed one of the first Council of the colony 
about to set forth. 

It was with reference to this expedition, per- 
haps, that Michael Drayton's "Ode to the Vir- 
ginia Voyage" was written. It begins: 

" You brave heroic minds 
Worthy your country's name; that honor still pursue, 

Go and subdue, 
Whilst loytering hinds 
Lurk here at home with shame. 

• «•••••••• 

And cheerfully at sea, 
Successe you still intice 

To get the pearle and gold, 

And ours to hold, 
Virginia 
Earth's only paradise. 



JAMESTOWN 83 

The Northern Virginia Company had trouble 
from the first, according to Sir Ferdinando 
Gorges; because so many merchants were of the 
Council that the gentlemen and great adventur- 
ers withdrew from it. The Southern Virginia 
Company was more fortunate. It escaped, at 
least, this difficulty; for the great majority of 
its members were men of the upper class and 
almost without exception members of Parlia- 
ment. 

The expedition designed to settle North Vir- 
ginia got off first. 

August 22, 1606, a ship, the Richard (fifty- 
five tons), was dispatched by Chief Justice 
Popham, under Mr. Henry Challons, with 
twenty-nine Englishmen and two of Weymouth's 
Indians, to settle a colony in North Virginia, 
and two months later another ship was dis- 
patched by him under Captain Thomas Han- 
ham, and Martin Prinne, "for the seconding of 
Captain Challans and his people." Captain 
Challans, however, and his people had been 
captured by the Spaniards in the West Indies, 
and were taken over to Bordeaux, where some 
escaped and others became the subject of diplo- 
matic correspondence, and by Lord Bacon's 
Report, were left in prison because, for England 
to request their release might be considered a 



84 THE OLD DOMINION 

recognition of Spain's rights. But for this unto- 
ward accident, it is possible that the first colony 
in America might have settled in North Virginia. 
As it was, the first colony that made good their 
footing, settled in Southern Virginia and estab- 
lished, on the banks of the noble James, the 
"Mother Christian town," of the English-speak- 
ing race in America: Jamestown. 

On the 20th day of December, 1606, after 
many prayers, and sermons in various churches, 
three small vessels, the Sarah Constant (of one 
hundred tons), Captain Christopher Newport, 
Admiral; the Goodspeed (forty tons), Captain 
Bartholomew Gosnold, Vice-Admiral; and a 
pinnace, the Discovery (twenty tons), Captain 
Ratcliffe, all under command of Captain Chris- 
topher Newport as Admiral, dropped down 
the river from London, with six score souls 
on board besides some fifty-odd mariners, on 
their way to Southern Virginia. They carried 
with them the destinies of nations. 

Three weeks later, on January 16, 1607, 
the ships anchored in the Downs, where "the 
winds continued contrary so long that they 
were forced to stay some time, where they suf- 
fered great storms." The record of the voyage 
shows that there was a strong inclination to turn 
back then, but they were held to their duty 



JAMESTOWN 85 

largely by the heroic devotion of "Worthy 
Master Hunt"; the simple parson, the first 
apostle of the Anglo-Saxon race to the Americas, 
whose name never appears in the sombre, and 
often squalid, records of that time that it does 
not illuminate it with the light of a heroic spirit, 
wholly devoted to the service alike of his fellow- 
man and the Most High God. For many weeks 
the little ships tossed at anchor within twenty 
miles of the coast where lay his home; and many 
a heart failed; but not his, this faithful soldier 
of Christ whose heart was stayed on Him. 
Whether it was in encouraging his fellow- 
voyagers in the midst of great storms in which 
his own bodily sickness was so severe as to be 
deemed worthy of mention, or whether it was in 
the even darker hour at Jamestown, when fac- 
tions and contentions threatened the destruction 
of the colony, he is always mentioned with that 
appellation: "Worthy Master Hunt," who en- 
deavored to calm the troubled spirits of his co- 
sufferers amid the turbulence alike of the 
Atlantic and of the new plantation. 

The storms having abated, the ships lost the 
coast of England about the 18th of February, 
and after a sorry passage reached by the end of 
February the southwest part of the great 
Canaries. There they stayed several days, tak- 



86 THE OLD DOMINION 

ing on wood and water, when they again sailed 
for Virginia, taking the old route by the West 
Indies. They reached Dominica by the 24th 
of March, where they did some little explora- 
tion, and where one of the leading adventurers 
appears to have fallen under some suspicion of 
stirring up a mutiny, for he was arrested, and 
because of it, to quote his own account, was "un- 
justly restrained as a prisoner" until June 20, 
when he suddenly emerges from his obscurity 
into the fame which has for three hundred 
years surrounded the name of "Captain John 
Smith: President of Virginia, and Admiral of 
New England." 



II 



Once again they set forth, and after three 
weeks more, on the 26th of April, about four 
o'clock in the. morning, they reached the mouth 
of the Chesapeake and anchored inside of the 
Capes of Virginia, the nearest one of which 
was immediately named Cape Henry, after the 
promising son of James I., whose chief distinc- 
tion is, that he was Sir Walter Raleigh's friend, 
and received the dedication of his "History of 
the World." They anchored Europe to Amer- 
ica; the old they made fast to the new. 



JAMESTOWN 87 

Having landed here, they planted a cross, 
taking possession in the name of England; and, 
it being Sunday, having, no doubt, under the 
direction of "Worthy Master Hunt," first offered 
up devout thanksgiving for their escape from the 
perils of the sea, which even to-day in our Church 
service thankful voyagers occasionally render, 
they undertook a little exploration. 

It is a curious fact, and speaks for their joy 
at reaching land, that, although they found the 
aborigines extremely hostile and two of the 
ship's company were grievously wounded by 
them, so great was their delight on reaching 
these shores, clad in fresh vernal garb that, in 
their reports, the attack on their men is only inci- 
dentally mentioned, while their records are full 
of the memories of the charm of this Virginia 
shore, with its clear streams running through 
the woods, in that spring season. 

Here, that night, the box containing their 
sealed orders was opened, and they discovered 
who were to be thenceforth their rulers. 

The first president was to be elected by the 
Council, which was composed of gentlemen the 
most noted of whom in after time was this same 
young captain who just then was a prisoner. 

The first president elected was Edward Maria 
Wingfield, a brave and high-minded gentleman, 



88 THE OLD DOMINION 

though unhappily not a man absolutely qualified 
to deal with the situation that confronted them. 

The first Council was composed of the presi- 
dent, Edward Maria Wingfield, Captain John 
RatclifFe, Captain George Archer, Captain John 
Martin, Captain John Smith, George Kendall 
and George Percy, all old soldiers, and men of 
force. 

The colonists learned, moreover, even if they 
did not know it before, that they were to have 
the privileges of British subjects, which, after 
all, was the fundamental basis on which the 
possibility of a permanent settlement of this 
country rested. Many matters were detailed in 
their instructions which were in the main sound 
and sensible. Among other things the settlers 
were ordered, with wise forethought on the part 
of the London Council, to establish themselves at 
some spot up one of the rivers sufficiently high — 
at least one hundred miles — to prevent the Span- 
iard, who is ever on the horizon, from coming 
on them as Melindus had done on the Hugue- 
nots, and pulling them out of their seats. And, 
with this view, they were directed to select a 
place where the river would be narrow enough 
to enable them to prevent with their ordnance 
the Spaniard from reaching them. The broad 
James then, as now, but under another kingly 



JAMESTOWN 89 

name, poured its flood into the inland sea, and 
the newcomers, seeking a secure abiding place, 
quickly discovered this noble river. Their first 
investigations, however, disheartened them, ow- 
ing to the discovery that the water was too shoal 
for their ships, and when, exploring further, they 
discovered that close to the northern bank there 
was a channel deep enough for their ships, their 
comfort was so great that they named that shore 
"Point Comfort," the name it bears to-day. 

For many days they worked their way up 
the broad stream which was to become so histor- 
ical in after time; until, on the 13th day of 
May, three hundred years ago, on this small 
island in this Virginia river, that little band of 
sea-worn adventurers disembarked and planted 
the flag of the Anglo-Saxon Race, which, though 
often threatened, and sometimes endangered, 
has never since been lowered. 

The manner of their going is told interest- 
ingly enough in the quaint and virile Eliza- 
bethan English. Having, on May 9, set up a 
cross "at Chesupioc Bay," claiming the land for 
the Crown of England, and named the place 
"Cape Henry" for their young Prince, who 
was ever a patron of Virginia colonization, on 
May 10 they brought their ships into the river 
at "Cape Comfort" channel there. "Leaving 



90 THE OLD DOMINION 

ten men as sentinel at the river's mouth," with 
Newport in his shallop going before them, they 
went to Kecoughton, now Hampton, and on 
from day to day up the stream which they called 
"King James his River," looking for "a suit- 
able seating place." On the ^-§f of May, after 
having "explored up the river" as far as the 
mouth of the Appomattox, they moored their 
ships to the- trees "in six fathom water," and 
thus made fast to Jamestown Island and the 
American continent. 

The account of the landing given at the time 
tells how, "After much and weary search (with 
their barge coasting still before, as Virgil writeth 
iEneas did, arriving in the region of Italy called 
Latium, upon the banks of the River Tyber) in 
the country of a Warrawance called Wowin- 
chapuncha (a ditionary to Powhatan) within this 
faire River of Paspiheigh, which we have called 
the King's River, they selected an extended 
plaine and spot of earth which thrust out into 
the depth and middest of the channel making a 
kinde of Chersonesus or Peninsula. The Trum- 
pets sounding, the Admirall strooke saile and 
before the same the rest of the fleet came to 
an ancor, and here to loose no further time the 
colony disimbarked, and every man brought his 
particular store and furniture together with the 



JAMESTOWN 91 

general provision ashore." And thereupon, "a 
certain canton and quantity of that little half 
island of ground was measured which they 
began to fortifie, and thereon in the name of God 
to raise a Fortresse with the ablest and speediest 
meanes they could." 

The landing on this spot that day of that little 
band of some six score sea-worn men (not count- 
ing fifty or sixty seamen) and the planting of the 
English flag was the date of the establishment 
of the Anglo-Saxon Race in this hemisphere, and 
the true date of the capture of this continent for 
the English-speaking people. To employ their 
own phrase, they "brake the ice and beat the 
paths," and all who came after them found it 
easier. For, as Lord Bacon says, "In King- 
doms, the First Foundation or Plantation is of 
more noble dignitie and merit than all that 
followeth." 

There were bickerings and contentions and 
quarrelling, disheartening enough; there were 
heart-burnings and backslidings; movements to 
give up and return to the flesh-pots of Egypt, 
rebellious and weak enough. There were occa- 
sions, and even periods when it appeared as 
though almost all spirit had deserted them, and 
their great enterprise must fail. But in the 
providence of God they survived them all. 



9 2 THE OLD DOMINION 

Time fails to go into the vicissitudes and strug- 
gles of this little colony, which, like the Spartan 
band, held the gateway by the sea against the 
seemingly overwhelming forces which ever 
pressed on and on. 

In this age, when well-nigh the whole earth 
lies just outside of our neighborhood; when 
every morning's dispatches bring us news of 
almost every portion of the globe; when the 
heart of Africa and the frozen regions of the 
Arctic zone have been explored and charted; 
when there is scarcely a region in which a travel- 
ler may not venture with security, it is difficult to 
realize just what the conditions were amid which 
this colony was founded. Our imagination has 
been almost destroyed by the destruction of the 
standards by which we form our conceptions. 
The wonders of the world are scarcely any longer 
wonderful, and the labors of Hercules are ex- 
celled by the work of thousands of enterprising 
companies every day of our life. We may now 
coast for pleasure where three hundred years ago 
it was more dangerous to venture than to beard 
the Nemean lion roused. The vast terra incog- 
nita that stretched illimitably before the eager 
eyes of those settlers is as familiar to us as a 
city park to the inhabitants about it; and the 
trackless wild, which seemed to swallow them 



JAMESTOWN 93 

up, is a part of the habitual round of the pleasure- 
travelling public. But on that May day three 
hundred years ago, when the company of those 
little ships debarked and made their final land- 
ing on American soil, they faced every peril and 
danger that the human mind can imagine. 

Every tree and bush and patch of weeds might 
conceal a crafty Indian with his deadly arrow. 

The Spaniard with sword and stake was ever 
on the horizon. The shadow of "Melindus" 
was yet black. 

No one who has the least conception of what 
those men endured will question their courage. 
It is possible, however, that had they known 
what they had to face in their new home the 
stoutest hearted of them might have quailed. 
To face death was nothing to such men, it was 
an incident of the life of every man as it is to-day 
of the life of the soldier in the field. Indeed, 
this little band was the forlorn hope of volun- 
teers sent to seize a continent. They made the 
breach and held it against all odds, and it is to 
the lasting renown of the English Race that as 
fast as their numbers failed they were replaced. 
On their maintaining their position hung the 
fate of North America, and possibly of the world. 
They had reached a charmed but an unknown 
land with a changeable and an untried climate. 



9 4 THE OLD DOMINION 

Their provisions, intended only to last until they 
could seed and harvest a new crop, had been 
wasted during their long voyage and would not 
last them out. Their form of government, under 
which the president could always be removed 
by a majority of the Council, was one well 
framed to breed faction. The community of 
interest which was imagined to be necessary in a 
new land placed the industrious at the mercy 
of the idle, and the zealous supported the shirker. 
But it is well for the Anglo-Saxon Race to pause 
and take note of the one great fact, that, however 
their perils may have alarmed them, however their 
vast isolation may have awed them, there always 
survived spirit enough to preserve them, and they 
remained in this far and perilous outpost of the 
Anglo-Saxon civilization, and with the devotion 
of the vestal virgin of old, kept the fire, however 
dim its spark, ever alight on the sacred shrine. 
Before the first summer was out sixty men of 
the one hundred and four whom Newport left 
when he returned to England were dead, and, 
though others came in their place, before two 
years had passed another large section of them 
had been laid away on the shores of the James, 
whose current has borne away their ashes as the 
current of time has borne away their memory. 
In fact, of all that brave company scarcely one 



JAMESTOWN 95 

found that which he sought. Hardly one found 
that for which he set forth, save, haply, "Worthy 
Master Hunt," who counted nought so that he 
might win souls to Christ, and Captain John 
Smith, who owes his fame even more to his pen 
than to his sword. 

Christopher Newport, who was the guardian 
angel of the colony, and preserved it from ex- 
tirpation in more than one crisis, has no 
monument in all this State of Virginia. It is 
questionable if even the name with which he 
is supposed to be associated, actually was de- 
rived from him. He explored the seas of both 
the East and West; and, having had sole com- 
mand of the first five voyages which brought the 
earlier colonists here and subsequently relieved 
their necessities when they were about to perish, 
his shotted hammock was swung at the last 
in the long surges of the Indian Seas. 

Bartholomew Gosnold, that "worthy and 
religious gentleman, ,, bold discoverer and ex- 
plorer of both coasts of Virginia, was laid in an 
unmarked grave somewhere there at Jamestown 
where the waters have cut into the shore, and 
his heroic dust has long since been swept away 
by the waters of the James, like that of so many 
another brave and devoted soldier and mariner. 
Years afterwards Captain John Smith declared 



96 THE OLD DOMINION 

that he had not one foot of ground in Virginia, 
"not the very house he had builded; not the 
land he had digged with his own hands." 

But though these men and their followers are 
not known save to a few historical students, their 
work is written large upon the history of the 
world. They laid the foundation for what we 
call North America. Truly, "they brake the 
ice and beat the paths," and the rest was com- 
paratively easy. One of them, Captain John 
Smith, has, indeed, through the skill of his pen, 
found imperishable fame, but of all the rest there 
is scarcely one whose name is known at present 
except to the small class of historical scholars 
whose pleasure is to delve among musty records, 
and whose reward is the joy of finding the jewel, 
Truth. A high-minded and " valiant gentleman " 
like Edward Maria Wingfield, successor to Sir 
Walter Raleigh as first governor of Virginia; a 
scholarly man like George Percy, brother to 
the Duke of Northumberland, who wrote in 
his hut at Jamestown the heartrending accounts 
of the "starving time"; bold seamen and ex- 
plorers like Newport, Gosnold and Argall, 
who explored the coast and repelled intruders, 
and made the crossing of the sea in their frail 
boats so common that in a few years all might 
adventure there; devoted and faithful servants 



JAMESTOWN 97 

of God like "Worthy Master Hunt," Mr. 
Bucke and "Excellent Mr. Whittaker," the 
"First Apostle to the Americans".: bold soldiers 
of Christ, whose names never appear in the 
dim records of that time that they do not 
illuminate them with the reflected glory of their 
Master's service; and all the long following who 
through the first fifteen years of the colony's 
history faced death in every form, and faced it 
bravely, because it was "for the Kingdom of 
God and the Kingdom of England" — who, ex- 
cept the small class of seekers for historic truth, 
knows anything of their fortitude, sacrifices and 
heroic deeds ? The histories which have circu- 
lated for nearly a century have dealt mainly with 
what they deemed blemishes on the colony. A 
few picturesque episodes like the rescue of John 
Smith by Pocahontas, or the shipment of the 
"chaste maids" as wives for some of the 
settlers, or the appearance of Newport at the 
crucial time, or the wreck of the Sea Venture 
on the "still vext Bermoothes, ,, nave been per- 
petuated. The occasional shipment of wild 
characters and criminals convicted under the 
hard laws of the period have been seized on and 
made the subject of exegesis as protracted as it 
is often inaccurate. But the great and epoch- 
making work that this first colony of Jamestown 



98 THE OLD DOMINION 

and their successors performed, and the hard- 
ships which they endured are scarcely known 
at all to the world at large. 

Yet the Virginia Colony not only planted 
and developed Virginia; they seized and held 
the continent, explored and charted and pro- 
tected its shores from Florida to Nova Scotia; 
established thereon the Saxon civilization and 
the Protestant religion, and finally gave America 
its distinctive form of government. 

The first month was spent in fortifying against 
the savages, of whom they had already experience 
on their first landing and were to have yet bitter- 
er experience, until they themselves became well- 
nigh as crafty and revengeful as the savages; and 
afterwards in "exploring the King's River" as they 
had been urged to do by the Council in London. 

The first night after their landing, "about 
midnight some savages came prying at them." 
Two weeks later, on May 28, the Werrowance 
of Paspaha came himself with one hundred 
armed savages and made signs to the English to 
lay their arms away, but they would not trust 
him so far. Two days later he sent forty of 
his men with a deer, as a present, and "they 
faine would have laine in the Fort all night." 
But the English knew their business better than 
to trust them. 



JAMESTOWN 99 

The last day of that month Newport took with 
him George Percy, John Smith, who was still 
under arrest, and four other " Gentlemen," 
Francis Nelson, and three other mariners, and 
Jonas Poole and thirteen other sailors and set 
forth in his shallop "to discover up the river." 
Captain John Smith later claimed this as one of 
his exploring expeditions, but in fact, Smith was 
still restrained as a prisoner and so remained 
until the 26th of June, twenty days after their 
return to Jamestown, when he was discharged. 
They named the north side of the river 
"Popham Side," doubtless in allusion to the 
North Virginia Colony which had sailed the 
summer before under Sir John Popham's 
patronage; the south side they called "Salisbury 
Side," and though the name is lost in Virginia, 
men still speak, and are spoken of as coming 
from "The South Side." As the explorers pro- 
ceeded up the river, "so much they were ravisht 
with the admirable sweetnesse of the streame, 
and with the pleasant land trending along on 
either side, that their joy exceeded, and with 
great admiration they praised God." 
' Whenever they encamped the Indians met 
them and danced for them and "took tobacco" 
with them, but when they reached Jamestown on 
their return they discovered that the Indians to 

tore 



ioo THE OLD DOMINION 

the number of above two hundred, with their 
king, had attacked the fort and killed a boy and 
wounded eleven men in a fight, "which endured 
hot about an hour," and in which the Council 
were in front "in mayntayning the Forte," and 
four of the five present were wounded (Gosnold, 
Ratcliffe, Martin and Kendall), and "our Presi- 
dent, Mr. Wingfield (who showed himself a val- 
iant gentleman) had an arrow shot clean through 
his bearde, yet escaped hurte." 

On their trip the explorers learned from an 
Indian at Turkey Island, who laid out with a 
pen given him the whole river, that at a great 
distance were the mountains, and beyond them 
that which they "expected," the South Sea. 

On Whit Sunday, June 3, they reached "the 
Falles," where they "feasted the King Paw- 
hatah, giving him beer, aqua vite and sack 
to drink, and made him very sick with their 
hot drinks." After dinner Captain Newport, 
"upon one of the little ilets at the mouth of the 
Falls," where Richmond now stands, "set up a 
crosse with this inscription: "JACOBUS REX, 
1607, and his owne name belowe." 

When on Monday, June 2, Newport, in the 
Sarah Constant, departed from James Fort 
for England, accompanied by the Goodspeed, 
he took with him "the First Report of His 



JAMESTOWN 101 

Majestie's Counsel for the first Colony to 
Virginia to His Majestie's Counsel for Vir- 
ginia in England"; the "First Relatyon" of the 
discovery up James River, with a "dearnall of 
our voyage," a "draughte of our river"; and 
also a number of letters, among which was one 
to the Earl of Salisbury. In this letter the 
writer, William Brewster, says: 

"This is all I will saye to you, that suche a 
Baye, a Rivar, and a land, dide nevar the eye 
of man behould; and at the head of the Rivar, 
which is 160 myles longe ar Rokes and moun- 
taynes, that prommyseth Infynyt Treasure, but 
our Forces be yet too weake, to make further 
discovery: Nowe is the King's Majesty offered, 
the most statlye, Riche Kingdom in the woorld, 
nevar posseste by anye Christian prynce; be you 
one meanes amonge manye to further our 
secondinge, to conquer this land, as well as you 
were a meanes, to further the discovery of it: 
and you, yet maye lyve to see Ingland, moore 
Riche & Renowned, than anye Kingdom, in all 
Europa * * * ." 

Virginia in the Spring is a prospect to gladden 
the heart. 

The quarrels and contentions were enough to 
have swamped a much stronger colony than 
that which had found a resting place on this 



102 THE OLD DOMINION 

little peninsula, but happily, in the providence 
of God there was always found enough wisdom 
and courage when the final issue came to decide 
in favor of maintaining the position which had 
been secured. 

Time fails to go into a detailed history of the 
long struggle. The wrangle that began then 
has continued even down to the present time, 
and polemists are engaged to-day in discussing 
with something of the rancor of the original con- 
testants whether Captain John Smith was the 
greatest man of the early period of the English 
settlement of the continent, or whether he was 
simply a braggart and a blusterer, who had the 
good fortune to survive most of his opponents, 
and lived to write a history which damned them 
all as a parcel of incompetents and fools. Those 
who have the time will find it mighty interesting 
reading if they will take the trouble to follow the 
original accounts of this earliest plantation of the 
English-speaking race on the continent. Possi- 
bly they will not agree with the advocates on 
either side. My own study of the case has led 
me to the conclusion that, as in most discussions 
of the kind, feeling has been allowed to usurp the 
place of calm, judicial investigation. I do not 
find that Edward Maria Wingfield was what 
his opponents in that first King's Council of 



JAMESTOWN 103 

Virginia tried to prove him: a selfish, greedy, 
weak, incompetent man, and what later genera- 
tions of historians have accepted him as being 
on their statement. And neither do I find proof 
that Captain John Smith was the one man who 
accomplished everything of worth that was done 
in those first years to establish this colony, any 
more than I find it that he was simply a brag- 
gart and a robber of the reputation of others. 

Wingfield's report, on the truth of which he 
offered to stake his life, as well as his reputation, 
sets him before the world as an honorable and 
high-minded gentleman, a faithful and unselfish 
administrator, and it bears on its face the stamp 
of truth which cannot be countefeited. 

Captain John Smith had many grievances and 
many real wrongs to right, and, no doubt, when 
he came to act as his own advocate, he set others 
who were opposed to him in a more unenviable 
light than the simple facts would have justified. 
But for all that, after the long lapse of years, he 
stands forth on all the evidence which we have 
as being undoubtedly, though not the only 
notable man, yet the most notable of all that 
ship's company who remained behind when 
Newport sailed away. But for him, it is possi- 
ble, if not probable, that at more than one crucial 
moment the enterprise might have failed; actu- 



104 THE OLD DOMINION 

ally extinguished by starvation. But the final 
accomplishment of that colony, though the 
actors were at times unable to see it, contained 
glory enough for all who participated in it. 



in 

Scarcely had Newport left when the worst 
enemy that the new settlers had to encounter, 
more lurking and more deadly than the "sal- 
vages," came upon them. About the 5th of July, 
appears the record, "Many of our men fell 
sick," and before that season was out, sixty 
men of the one hundred and four left by New- 
port were in their graves. They had pitched 
upon a landing place simply because of the 
security which it offered against their enemies, 
without knowing aught of the climate and its 
perils, and it proved to be a spot so malarial 
that before the first summer was out, sixty men 
were dead of wounds and disease, as later many 
more perished. The sounds of their sufferings 
so impressed itself on that scholarly historian, 
George Percy, fourth president of the colony, that 
he pictured it in one of his reports whose virility 
is to-day the wonder of all English writers. 

' Burning fevers destroyed them," says the 
historian, ''some departed suddenly, but, for 



JAMESTOWN 105 

the most part, they died of mere famine. There 
were never Englishmen left in a foreign country 
in such misery as we were in this new discovered 
Virginia." "There was groaning in every cor- 
ner of the fort most pitiful to hear." "If there 
was any conscience in men, it would make 
their hearts to bleed to hear the pitiful mur- 
murings and outcries . . . some departing out 
of the world, sometimes three and four in a 
night; in the morning their bodies trailed out 
of the cabins like dogs to be buried." Among 
the first losses was the brave Bartholomew Gos- 
nold — mariner, explorer, soldier and adminis- 
trator, who had in 1602 crossed the sea direct 
from the Azores to what is now the Newfound- 
land coast, and then sailed home again with ac- 
counts of those shores, which led subsequently 
to their settlement. His ashes lie with those 
of "Worthy Master Hunt" and many another 
brave gentleman, mingled with Virginia's soil 
in some unmarked spot at Jamestown, or borne 
like Wickliffe's "far as the waters be," but his 
work remains. He may have been an element 
of peace in the settlement, for soon after his 
death, according to the record, dissensions be- 
gan, which ceased not until every one of his 
fellow-members of the Council had disappeared 
from the scene. 



106 THE OLD DOMINION 

By the last of September Wingfield had been 
deposed from the presidency by Ratcliffe, Smith 
and Martin, and was succeeded by Ratcliffe; 
and a few days later Kendall was shot for con- 
spiracy to seize and run off with a pinnace to 
the Newfoundland fisheries. 

Captain John Smith himself, who, released 
from the unjust restraints of his liberty, had de- 
veloped extraordinary energy as an explorer, and 
from the 6th of December, 1607, to the 12th of 
January, 1608, had been absent exploring the 
Chickahominy, or in captivity to Powhatan, and 
whose life had been saved by the young Poca- 
hontas, was, on his return, immediately indicted 
for the loss of his companions and condemned to 
be executed. But to quote his own words : "It 
pleased God to send Captain Newport unto us 
that same evening." 

Newport, who had reached London on Au- 
gust 18, returned (on the John and Francis, 
with the Phoenix; Captain Nelson and forty 
men in consort) and reached Jamestown, Sat- 
urday evening, January 12, having separated 
from his consort, which had gone to the West 
Indies, and did not arrive until the end of 
April. 

Of the one hundred and four men left by 
him at the end of June, Newport found only 



JAMESTOWN 107 

thirty-eight or forty alive, but he brought some- 
thing like seventy in his ship. 

An interesting entry, notwithstanding its 
brevity, relates to his arrival. " By his comyng 
was prevented a Parliament, which ye new 
Counsailor, Mr. Recorder, intended thear to 
summon." " Mr. Recorder " was Captain Archer, 
who had been the first man wounded on Amer- 
ican soil, and whose name is thus associated with 
the first mention in any record of an elective 
assembly in America. He with Martin and 
others were among the first protestants against 
the evils of the form of government established by 
the King's Charter, and their protests led later 
to the amended charters of 1609 and 161 2, which 
last was the Magna Charta of American liber- 
ties. The protests set forth by them became the 
battle-cry between the "Patriot Party" and the 
"Court Party" in the long contest which then 
began, and which bore its part in leading to the 
great struggle in England. 

Thus, these men, who have had scant justice 
done them in history, were the first of the long 
and illustrious list of American patriots who 
stood for the increase of personal liberty against 
the domination of the Crown. Smith himself 
took extreme ground against them. 

The order in which the governors were selected 



108 THE OLD DOMINION 

by the Council were as follows: Wingfield, Rat- 
cliffe, Smith and Percy. And undoubtedly the 
others were more highly esteemed at first than 
the young Captain. 

A man may be an excellent gentleman and a 
brave soldier, and yet may lack administrative 
ability and the precise qualities needed for the 
management and government of such a company 
as that which came to settle in Virginia. Un- 
doubtedly it appears that among the brave and 
honorable gentlemen who came as leaders of 
this colony, while others may have been of nobler 
character and of more unselfish ambition, the 
most enterprising and resourceful among them 
was this young Willoughby adventurer, who, 
having served with some distinction in Southern 
Europe, had now come to seek new adventures 
under the Western Star. He appears to have 
been gey ill to deal with as a subordinate, but 
to have been prompt, bold and efficient as a 
governor. By his own account, he is entitled to 
the credit of most of what was accomplished 
during the brief period of his stay, extending 
over only a little more than two years. He de- 
clares it was he who preserved the lives of the 
colonists again and again from the conspiracies of 
their Indian enemies; that it was he who forced 
them to work, and thus saved the little colony 



JAMESTOWN 109 

from starvation; that it was he who preserved 
them by going among the Indians intimidating 
those who were hostile and securing the friend- 
ship of those who were simply indifferent. 

He unquestionably did not "discover up the 
King's River in May," as he claimed to have 
done. For although he accompanied Newport 
on this expedition, he was, by his own account, 
still "restrained of his liberty," because of the 
plot at Nevis on the way over, and was not dis- 
charged until June 26. 

One incident which he relates has of late years 
been made the point of attack by a hostile faction 
among the historians, who, for one reason or 
another, can see no good in him. He relates in 
his account written in 1616, and repeats it in 
that of 1624, that having been captured in 
December, 1607, during the exploration of the 
head-waters of the Chickahominy, he was taken 
to Werowocomoco, the residence of King Pow- 
hatan, and was about to be executed by having 
his brains dashed out, when, at the moment of 
his execution the King's dearest daughter, Poca- 
hontas, shielded him and preserved his life at 
the hazard of the beating out of her own brains. 
The point is urged, that had this episode 
really occurred, Smith would never have waited 
so long to record it, but would have mentioned 



no THE OLD DOMINION 

it in the " True Relation " of 1608, which Captain 
Francis Nelson fetched back to England in the 
Phoenix in June, 1608. 

It is no part of my intention to enter fully into 
this discussion, though the weight of argument 
appears to be so overwhelmingly on the side of 
the truth of Smith's report, that the arguments 
against him seem to me to have but little weight. 
Two facts may be mentioned to establish this view. 
The first is, that "I. H.," who edited the "True 
Relation " when it was printed, states that " some- 
what more was written, which being as I thought 
fit to be private, I would not adventure to make 
it public. " The second is, that at the time 
when Smith wrote the report of 16 16, there were 
a number of his fellow-colonists yet living, some 
of them in England, who loved him none too 
well, and would have been ready enough to 
attack him had he written such a story without 
foundation. 

It has been conjectured by Smith's advocates 
that the omission in the "True Relation" re- 
ferred to by the editor, related to his arrest and 
imprisonment on the charge of being implicated 
in the conspiracy of Nevis. 

I hazard a conjecture which does not appear 
to have been esteemed as weighty as I deem it. 
Pocahontas was the daughter of a king who 



JAMESTOWN 



in 



ruled over a great domain almost as large in 
extent, with its dependencies, as England itself. 
It was a period when it behooved men to go deli- 
cately where they were concerned with matters 
relating to other kings and the daughters of other 
kings than those of England. 

Sir Walter Raleigh, first president and earli- 
est patron of Virginia, lay pining in the Tower 
of London because of alleged dealings with a 
Royal Princess, the Lady Arabella Stuart. 
Many a man had gone to the block or to the 
gallows for showing too much interest in the 
cause of some scion of the royal house. Time 
and again in the history of the colony crops up 
the suggestion of Pocahontas's royal pedigree 
being an element of danger. Had he been less 
discreet it would have been boldly charged that 
Smith, who was believed to have a vaulting 
ambition, had aspirations, which, exhibited with 
a little more plainness, might have led him 
promptly to the block or to the gallows. 

Two of his fellow-colonists who were on the 
spot, Pots and Phittiplace, in their account of 
the arrival of the third supply in 1609, show the 
fact. 

"Some prophetical spirit, ,, they wrote, "cal- 
culated hee had the Salvages in such subjection, 
hee would haue made himselfe a king, by mar- 



ii2 THE OLD DOMINION 

rying Pocahontas, Powhatan s daughter. (It is 
true she was the very Nomparell of his king- 
dome, and at most not past 13 or 14 yeares of 
age. Very oft shee came to our fort, with what 
shee could get for Captaine Smith; that ever 
loued and vsed all the Countrie well, but her 
especially he euer much respected, and she so 
well requited it, that when her father intended 
to haue surprized him, shee by stealth in the 
darke night came through the wild woods and 
told him of it. But her marriage could in no 
way haue intitled him by any right to the king- 
dome, nor was it ever suspected hee ever had 
such a thought; or more regarded her, or any 
of them, than in honest reason and discretion he 
might. If he would, he might haue married 
her, or haue done what him listed; for there was 
none that could haue hindered his determina- 
tion. 

Here then we have a hint of a good reason for 
his not dwelling on this adventure, and of I. H.'s 
omission of it if Smith himself related it. 

When a little later John Rolph won the young 
woman's affection, although Dale readily ac- 
quiesced in the plan, Rolph felt it necessary as 
she was a princess to write and ask for per- 
mission to marry her. 

Although the young councillor had enemies 



JAMESTOWN n 3 

enough, and appears to have done enough in the 
way of making the lazy work or go hungry, to 
bring a swarm about his ears, the balance is 
immensely in his favor. He was hated by his 
opponents, and adored by his old soldiers. Re- 
turning from his expedition to the Falls, where 
now stands the capital of Virginia, while he was 
asleep in his boat a bag of powder in his pocket 
was accidentally exploded, which tore his flesh 
from his body and thighs in a "most pitiful 
manner." He sprang overboard to prevent him- 
self from burning to death and came near being 
drowned. While he lay suffering from this acci- 
dent a plot was formed to murder him in his bed, 
but the assassin's heart failed him. His old 
soldiers rallied about him and importuned him 
to permit them to put his enemies to death, but 
this he refused, and took order with the masters 
of the ships for his return to England, and later 
on in life he was able to make the proud boast 
that, whatever provocations he had had, he had 
never put any man to death. 

Among his followers, one writing of his de- 
parture said: "What shall I say? but thus we 
lost him that, in all his proceedings, made 
Iustice his first guid[e], and experience his 
second; ever hating baseness, sloth, pride, and 
indignitie more than any dangers; that never 



ii 4 THE OLD DOMINION 

allowed more for himselfe then his soldiers with 
him; that vpon no danger, would he send them 
where he would not lead them himselfe; that 
[he] would never see us want what he either 
had, or could by any means get vs; that would 
rather want than borrow, or starue then not pay; 
that loved actions more then wordes, and hated 
falshood and cous[e]nage worse then death; 
whose adventures were our hues, and whose 
losse our deathes." 

No higher tribute could be paid, and it has 
the smack of having been paid to worth. 

On the 17th of January, 1608, a new mis- 
fortune befell the settlement: Jamestown was 
burned to the ground with the store-house full 
of supplies, the church, and the library of "Wor- 
thy Master Hunt," and the store of ammuni- 
tion. 

Newport employed his mariners to rebuild the 
church, but the winter was severe in America 
and in Europe also, and many deaths occurred 
from cold. 

Newport, having with Smith, Tyndall, the 
surveyor, and others explored and made "a 
draught" of York River, and got corn, wheat 
and beans for the colonists, whom the fire had 
reduced to great straits, sailed for England 
again on April 20, taking with him Wingfield, 



JAMESTOWN 115 

Archer and others, who went home to lay their 
claims before the Council, and what is more, to 
make them good. For the personal reports of 
Wingfield, Martin, Archer, Nelson, Ratcliffe and 
others, and of Newport himself, showed those in 
England who were interested in the colony the 
gross defects in the system when put into prac- 
tical operation. And in January, 1609, soon 
after Newport's arrival from Virginia, after his 
third voyage, a new charter was drawn up by 
Sir Edwin Sandys, a name ever memorable in 
the annals of America and of all lands where 
liberty has her home. 

This charter, in which the rights of the 
colonists were declared inalienable, and which 
guaranteed them to be theirs forever, extended 
the borders of Virginia to the furthest sea. 
Moreover, the government thenceforth was to 
be vested in the Virginia Council in London, in- 
stead of in the Crown. And this was the first 
victory of the Americans over the Crown. 

Meantime Virginia had seen evil days. About 
three hundred and thirty settlers had come over 
by this time, and only a hundred or so were left, 
while these were reduced to the greatest straits. 
It was a dark hour for the colony and for the 
British people; but light was soon to come. 
Newport, who was the good angel of the colony, 



n6 THE OLD DOMINION 

had been to Virginia twice more, saving more 
lives than that of Captain John Smith, and on 
his third voyage he took over a number of 
women, the most valuable part of his valuable 

cargo. 

The new charter gave great joy to the colony. 

Lord Delaware was chosen Governor and 
Captain-General; Sir Thomas Gates, a bold 
captain, whose name stands first in the Charter, 
Lieutenant-General; Sir George Somers, Ad- 
miral of Virginia; and Captain Christopher 
Newport, Vice-Admiral of Virginia; all notable 
men whose history is that of the making of 
America. 

The company was strengthened by the acces- 
sion of a large number of the members of the 
North Virginia Company, who accepted the 
invitation to co-operate in establishing the 
Southern colony, thus doing away, at least 
temporarily, with the first sectional lines which 
were drawn touching America. In fact, "of 
the forty-three members of His Majesty's First 
Council for New England formed some years 
afterward, at least thirty had assisted in founding 
the First Colony on James River." 

The prospects of the colony were now bright- 
ening, at least in England. A large fleet of nine 
ships was now got ready to send under Sir 



JAMESTOWN n 7 

Thomas Gates. Some ten days before, how- 
ever, a single ship had been dispatched under 
Captain Samuel Argall, "a pleasant, ingenius, 
and forward young gentleman," to find a more 
direct route to Virginia; avoiding the land of 
the pirates [the West Indies]; and to "make 
an experience of the winds and currents which 
have affrighted all undertakers by the North." 

Argall did his work thoroughly, and arriving 
in the Chesapeake after only a nine weeks' 
voyage, in which he was becalmed fourteen days, 
established the fact that there were no currents 
nor constant winds to prevent a direct crossing, 
thus shortening the distance and escaping not 
only the "Pyrates," but the calenture, which 
was the most deadly foe that the new colonists 
encountered. 

Of the fleet of nine vessels, six arrived duly, 
two with their masts cut away; but the Sea 
Venture, with Sir Thomas Gates and Sir George 
Somers, was driven ashore on the coast of an 
island, which had theretofore been deemed so 
stormy that it had been called the "Isle of 
Devils." It was, however, a fortunate wreck, 
not only for the little colony in Virginia, but for 
the whole English-speaking race; for the follow- 
ing summer, when the settlers were reduced to 
the last straits, not only did Sir Thomas Gates 



u8 THE OLD DOMINION 

and Sir George Somers arrive in two little 
vessels which they had built to take them to 
Virginia and relieve their immediate necessities, 
but the romantic story of the Sea Venture gave 
a London playwright an idea on which to base 
one of his immortal dramas. 

So reduced were the settlers at the time of the 
arrival of Sir Thomas Gates, that having only 
fourteen days' provision in all, they started to 
set sail for New Foundland, where they knew 
the fishing fleet could be met, and had actually 
buried their cannon and started down the river, 
when they were met by Lord Delaware, who 
had come over with new succors, and, having 
learned at Cape Comfort of their distress, had 
sent ahead of him his long boat, the little pin- 
nace Virginia, the first boat of even that size 
which had been built on the American shores. 

Lord Delaware landed at Jamestown on the 
ioth day of June, 1610, and Sir Thomas Gates 
was drawn up with his soldiers to receive him at 
the South Gate. His first act on landing was to 
kneel and offer up prayer and thanksgiving. 

He immediately took steps to place the colony 
on a sounder foundation than had yet existed, 
and though he set up a style of living which 
was deemed at the time rather out of place in a 
wilderness, he knew the effect of order, and even 



JAMESTOWN u 9 

of show when wisely employed. One of his first 
acts was to build a good and suitable church, 
sixty by twenty-four feet, with chancel and pews 
of cedar and two bells in the west end. Here 
he attended services escorted by all his high 
officials, and fifty halberdiers in red cloaks; 
sitting in the choir in a velvet chair, and kneel- 
ing on a velvet cushion. 

In the beginning it was claimed by some that, 
"a good soldier who knew how to use a pick 
was worth many knights who could only break 
a lance," but the lances that Sir Thomas West 
broke were pointed against the enemies of good 
government, and when having been seized with 
a violent ague which undermined his health, he 
was forced to leave Virginia, he left behind him 
such a character and such fruits of his rule, that 
long afterwards he was cited as a model by those 
who asked that some nobleman of rank, or of 
scarcely less high order, might be appointed 
governor of the new commonwealth. 

Lord Delaware's successor was Sir George 
Yardley, who has been spoken of as "the mild 
Yardley." His mildness, however, was that of 
a broad-minded and high-minded gentleman, 
and, possibly, more than any other one who held 
rule in Virginia, he contributed to liberalize her 
government. For a while he was superseded by 



120 THE OLD DOMINION 

one who was far from mild, but who possibly 
was better suited at the time for the control of 
a young colony filled with "wild gallants" and 
holding at bay wilder Indians: Sir Thomas 
Dale, "a man skilled in divinity and of a good 
conscience in all things'' but withal an old 
soldier. He was at the time in service in the Low 
Countries, but was lent to the Virginia Company 
by his Dutch employers as a man well fitted for 
the work in hand. He quickly proved the stuff* 
of which he was made, and under the iron rule 
which he set up, the new plantation took a long 
leap forward. He found men playing at bowls 
in the streets, but he soon put a stop to this. 
His government became unpopular enough for a 
conspiracy to be hatched, but discovering it he 
arrested the leaders and inflicted the death pen- 
alty, in what was charged to be "a cruel, unusual 
and barbarous one, at one time customary in 
France." In 1624 a number of Burgesses signed 
an account of what they had witnessed. "One 
man had a bodkin thrust through his tongue and 
was chained to a tree until he perished, others 
were put to death by hanging, shooting, breaking 
on the wheel and the like." But, cruel as this 
punishment was, it was deemed that Dale pre- 
vented the utter subversion of the colony. 

During all this period Spain was far from 



JAMESTONN 121 

quiescent. Her power was still great enough to 
cause constant anxiety, her diplomacy was stead- 
ily at work, and only the deep feeling of the 
English people prevented the timid James from 
yielding to her threats. Zuniga, wiliest and 
most active of ambassadors, was ever seeking his 
ear, with mingled promises and threats, and 
again and again he left the royal closet and even 
the royal table to send dispatches to his master, 
urging him to lose no time to uproot the new 
plantation in Virginia, and cut the planters' 
throats. The correspondence in cipher between 
the Spanish Ambassador in London, Zuniga, 
and his master at home, has only recently 
been published.* 

Zuniga was, in strict obedience to orders from 
home, using his utmost diligence to prevent the 
success of the English colonization schemes, and 
we find him now seeking interviews with James 
and now reporting progress to his master. We 
find James putting him off" on one pretext or 
another, doubtless under the advice of ardent 
haters of Spain, and men with interests in the 
Virginia adventures, and when run down and 
cornered, using all sorts of evasive replies; much 
as one in high government position might do 

*The monumental work of Alexander Brown, "The Genesis 
of the United States," throws a flood of light upon this time. 



122 THE OLD DOMINION 

to-day; first expressing friendship for his bro- 
ther monarch and ignorance of what was going 
on, then claiming a right to colonize, and again 
shiftily disavowing the acts of the colonists, 
and, altogether, giving a very good picture of 
his mean and miserable self. We find Zuniga 
declaring to him that "this invention of going to 
Virginia for colonizing purposes was seen in the 
wretched zeal in which it was done, since the 
soil is very sterile, and that hence there can be 
no other purpose connected with that place than 
that it appears to them good for pirates," and 
the King telling him in reply that "they are 
terrible people, and that he desired to correct the 
matter. " Zuniga in this same letter assures his 
master that he would be "very careful to find 
out about what was going on," and adds a 
significant hint, "but I should consider it 
very desirable that an end should now be made 
of the few who are there, for that would be 
digging up the root, so that it could come up 
no more." 

On the 16th of October, 1607, he wrote to 
his master, urging dispatch on his part, and 
quoting the King as reported to him by a Count 
Salisbury, to the effect that it seemed to him, 
after full consideration, that the English might 
not go to Virginia, and that thus if evil should 



JAMESTOWN 123 

befall them there, it would not be on his account, 
since to him this would not appear to be contrary 
to friendship and peaceful disposition. (Cep 
tainly, if he was correctly quoted, a most damn- 
ing statement.) And then Zuniga adds for 
himself, "it will be serving God and 'Y. M.' 
to drive these villains out from there, hanging 
them in time, which is short enough for the pur- 
pose." This hint was taken promptly, as ap- 
pears from a copy of the report of the Spanish 
Consul of State, dated November 10, 1607, de- 
claring Virginia a part of the Indies, and pro- 
viding that "the fleet stationed to the windward 
should be instantly made ready, and forthwith 
proceed to drive out all who are now in Virginia, 
since their small number will make this an easy 
task, and this will suffice to prevent them from 
again coming to that place." On this report 
the King of Spain endorses his "Royal decree," 
"Let such measures be taken as may now and 
hereafter appear proper." Happily for the 
Saxon civilization, Spain had enough to do just 
then in Europe, and however factions may have 
divided the plantation and led to the cutting of 
throats, the throats were not so easily cut by 
a foreign power. 

King James had at his side as sturdy a people 
and body of councillors, and as far-sighted a body 



124 THE OLD DOMINION 

of statesmen as even those on whom Elizabeth 
had leaned. When Challons's party, which had 
sailed to settle North Virginia, were captured 
and held by Spain, their petitions for deliver- 
ance were long ignored, because any request for 
their release on the part of England might, it 
was deemed, be held an acquiescence in the 
rights which Spain asserted. 

Dale's method of dealing with some con- 
spirators, who had attempted to run away with 
a boat caused opposition. Yet, he was an able 
administrator, and not only enforced order, but 
enlarged the plantation and built the new town 
of Henrico, in the loop of the James, which soon 
became a flourishing settlement, and was the seat 
of the first college and the first hospital ever 
founded on American soil. Moreover, he quelled 
the Indians and made alliances with them, not 
only public alliances, but personal alliances. It 
was under his governorship that a marriage was 
brought about between John Rolfe and Pow- 
hatan's favorite daughter, Pocahontas; which 
had a decided effect in reducing the hostility of 
the Indians so long as Powhatan lived, and se- 
cured a truce which lasted with some exceptions 
till the great massacre of April, 1622, in which 
it is said even John Rolfe fell a victim. 

Dale offered himself to espouse the Indian 



JAMESTOWN 125 

King's other favorite child, an honor which 
Powhatan declined on account of her youth. 

It was Dale who abolished communism and 
the general store, and allotted to every man in 
the colony land: "three acres of clear corn 
ground," on a rent of two and one-half barrels 
of corn, exempting them from all service or 
labor for the colony, "more than one month in 
the year." But Dale did more than merely 
extend the colony of Virginia into the interior. 
He defended the entire territory of Virginia 
against encroachments by other powers. 

It having been learned that the French had set- 
tled a colony at Mount Desert, in North Virginia, 
he sent that same " forward young gentleman," 
Captain George Argall, with an expedition to 
"root up the colony," which was effectively 
done. And, but for this, it is possible that 
France might have seized and held what a little 
later was called "New England." It is certain 
that the destruction of the French colony made 
the New England coast safe, not only for the 
English fishermen who now came in numbers to 
the northwestern waters, but for the English 
settlers who seven or eight years later followed 
in their wake. 

At the Michaelmas quarter court, of 1619, Sir 
Edwin Sandys recalled "how by the admirable 



i 2 6 THE OLD DOMINION 

care and diligence of two worthy knights, Sir 
Thomas Gates and Sir Thomas Dale, the colony 
was set forward in a way to great perfection; 
whereof the former, Sir Thomas Gates, had the 
honour to all posterity to be the first named in 
His Majesty's patent of a grant to Virginia, and 
was the first who, by his wisdom, valour and 
industry, accompanied with exceeding pains and 
patience in the midst of so many difficulties, laid 
a foundation of that prosperous estate of the 
Colony, which afterward in the virtue of those 
beginnings did proceed. 

"The latter, Sir Thomas Dale, building upon 
those foundations with great and constant sever- 
ity, had reclaimed almost miraculously those 
idle and disordered people and reduced them to 
labour and an honest fashion of life; and pro- 
ceeding with great zeal to the good of this 
Company." 

Dale was succeeded in 1617 by Captain 
Samuel Argall, now "Admiral of Virginia, and 
Vice-Governor ,, ; a man of parts, as we have 
seen. He was, like Dale, a man of prompt 
action; and, like Dale, he passed stern laws 
and enforced them. 

He forbade "the teaching of Indians to shoot 
guns on pain of death to learner and teacher"; 
forbade all trading with them and set up 



JAMESTOWN 127 

"slavery to ye Colony as a punishment." Every 
man was to set two acres with corn or forfeit his 
corn and tobacco, and " be a slave to ye Colony. " 
Every person must go to church on Sundays and 
Holidays or "lay neck and heels on the corps de 
garde ye night following and be a slave ye week 
following." For a second offense, he was to 
be a slave for a month; and for the third, for a 
year and a day. 

The Governor was so pleased with the effect 
of his laws touching slavery to the colony that he 
introduced a few slaves on his own account, and 
the ship which in 1619 first introduced negro 
slaves into the colony, and has generally been 
called a "Dutch Man-of-War," was really Ar- 
gall's ship, the Treasurer, which engaged in 
something very like piracy, and thereby came 
near bringing on a war with Spain. The term 
employed for a privateer was, "Dutch Man-of- 
War," because they commonly hoisted the 
Dutch colors. 

It was, however, possibly the severity of the 
laws of Dale and Argall which brought about 
the greatest blessing that had hitherto happened 
to Virginia: the liberalizing of her government. 

Two parties now existed in the Virginia Com- 
pany in England, "the Court Party" and "the 
Patriot Party," and the latter had begun to pre- 



128 THE OLD DOMINION 

vail. The great Virginia Courts held in London 
became the talk of England and were spoken of 
as the "Virginia Parliaments. " 

The broad-minded and liberal Yardley was 
reinstated as Governor by the patriot party in 
the Company, and on his return he brought over 
the announcement that the people of Virginia 
were to have an elective assembly, and thence- 
forth were to rule themselves. It was the great- 
est step yet taken for the new country. 

In pursuance of this far-reaching measure, 
Yardley, on his arrival at Jamestown, ordered a 
general election of burgesses by the freemen of 
the colony, and issued writs to the eleven bor- 
oughs now existing in the colony for the elec- 
tion. In pursuance thereof, on Friday, the 30th 
day of July (old style), the 9th day of August, 
16 19 (new style), convened at Jamestown, the 
first elective assembly that ever sat on the 
American continent. From the first they claimed 
the privileges of members of the British House 
of Commons, and, though the session was held in 
the church, they asserted their right to sit with 
their hats on. And among their first acts was 
the appointment of a committee to consider the 
new charter, and determine whether it was 
adapted to their needs. In fact, thenceforth 
Virginia was herself a Commonwealth, and 



JAMESTOWN 129 

though it has been through many vicissitudes, a 
Commonwealth she has remained to the present 
time: the first Commonwealth that sprang from 
England's loins, and mother of many Common- 
wealths herself. 

This freedom thus growing up in Virginia 
was understood; and, largely in consequence 
thereof, the Puritan congregation at Leyden, 
after long negotiation with the Virginia Com- 
pany, set sail in the summer of 1620 to settle in 
Virginia, possibly about the mouth of the 
Delaware; quite certainly south of the mouth 
of the Hudson. They were, however, blown or 
drifted farther northward than they intended to 
go, and finally, after trying to work southward, 
finding shoals, turned northward again and 
landed on Massachusetts Bay in December. 

James, who had long been warned by the 
Spanish Ambassador that his Virginia "Courts" 
were a "seminary for a seditious parliament," 
awoke to the danger of so much liberty in his 
"fourth kingdom," but it was too late. The 
Virginians had tasted the sweets of popular 
government and stood on their liberties. 

Under Sir Francis Wyat, who came over in 
162 1, everything appeared prosperous in Vir- 
ginia, when, without warning, on the morning of 
April 1, 1622, the Indians throughout the colony 



i 3 o THE OLD DOMINION 

fell on the unsuspecting colonists and massacred 
over four hundred of them. Jamestown, the 
seat of government, was saved through a warn- 
ing given the night before by an Indian named 
Chanco; but from the Falls of the James to the 
Chesapeake the plantations were devastated. 
The flourishing town of Henrico was destroyed, 
and with it went the hospital, with its fourscore 
beds, and the projected university, with its en- 
dowment of ten thousand acres and two thou- 
sand pounds. Six members of the Council fell 
victims, including Mr. Thorpe, the deputy for 
the college, and probably John Rolph, the for- 
mer husband of Pocahontas. 

Had Virginia not already been established 
on a firm foundation, this blow must have de- 
stroyed her. As it was, it only served to excite 
both the company and the colony to renewed 
efforts. The massacre was the death-blow of 
the Powhatans and their allied tribes. The 
settlers from this time applied themselves to the 
work of clearing all that region of a people who 
had proved so "subtile," and the leader of the 
movement was the "Mild Yeardley." From 
now on we find the settlers going on "marches" 
three times a year to harry and do the Indians 
all the damage in their power. 

In the confusion and disturbance consequent 



JAMESTOWN 131 

on the massacre, James was enabled for a brief 
space by the exercise of tyrannical power to 
suppress the Virginia charter, but it was not 
for long. He arrested Sir Edwin Sandys, the 
chief spirit of the Patriot party, and a number 
of others, and when the Commons protested 
against this violation of their privilege, he went 
to Westminister, and, in the presence of his 
Privy Council, tore with his own hands from the 
records of the House the leaves on which they 
had spread their protest. He sent commission- 
ers to Virginia to investigate, and they demanded 
the surrender of the records there, but the House 
of Burgesses refused to obey the order, and when 
their clerk, Edward Sharpless, in disobedience 
to their orders, gave up copies, they stood him in 
the pillory and cut off his ear. 

From this time the people were aroused. 
They soon extorted their charter again from 
Charles, and not many years later, when one of 
their governors, Sir John Harvey, failed to 
espouse as warmly as they thought proper the 
cause of William Claibourne, "the Rebel," in 
his war with the Lord Proprietor of the new 
colony of Maryland, they rose in arms and 
"thrust him out of the Government." He ap- 
pealed to Charles I., who reinstated him as 
Governor; but the Virginians, though they re- 



i 3 2 THE OLD DOMINION 

ceived him loyally as they later did his successor, 
Sir William Berkeley, were now well aware of 
the strength of their position. They withstood 
Cromwell to the point of exacting what was 
really a treaty with his commissioners; but they 
readily assimilated the defeated Royalists who 
came over after Edge Hill and Naseby and 
Worcester, and the exiled Republicans who 
sought homes among the planters after the Res- 
toration. They were loyal subjects of the Stu- 
arts, as they were a hundred years later loyal 
subjects of George III., but they were more 
loyal yet to their ideal of popular government. 
Their petitions were filled with expressions of 
devotion; but with equally plain declarations 
of their chartered rights. They viewed the 
death of Charles I. with horror, and offered a 
realm to his son when in exile. But with it all 
went enthusiastic devotion to the cause of self- 
government, and whenever this was assailed 
they flamed into revolution. 

The "rebellion," led by Nathaniel Bacon in 
1676, was at bottom for the same cause as that 
which a hundred years later was led by George 
Washington. The immediate occasion was 
different, but the basic cause was the same in 
both: the inalienable right of British subjects 
to have self-government. Both of them were 



JAMESTOWN 133 

based on the original charters under which 
Virginia was planted. Both of them were 
founded in the liberty-loving character of Eng- 
lishmen expanded under the broad skies of the 
Old Dominion. 



Ill 

COLONIAL LIFE 

' I A HE life of the Old Dominion was in a man- 
ner distinctive, and that it was not more so 
was due to the impress that it extended to the 
life beyond its borders. It preserved far more 
than that of the other colonies the traits of the 
English country life, including the distinction of 
different orders of society and their traditionary 
habits of life and forms of government. 

From the first the Virginia colonization was 
under charge of the best element in the king- 
dom. It had its inception in the great strategic 
motive of wresting this continent from Spain 
and making it English. The charter itself was 
granted to men of rank and standing, like the 
Gilberts and Raleigh, with whom were asso- 
ciated men of the highest class, who gave it a 
character which it never lost. Elizabeth's in- 
terest in the movement gave it the catchet of the 

court and the nobles and other gentry in Parlia- 

134 



COLONIAL LIFE 135 

ment eagerly lent their names and interest to a 
work so fraught with promise for England. 
Raleigh boasted that he could number a hun- 
dred gentlemen among his kindred, and the 
great landowners took part in the movement 
as "adventurers," adventuring for such mer- 
chandise, as Romeo vowed he would for Juliet, 
as far as was the farthest sea. 

The first Virginia Councils were composed 
almost entirely of men of title. The spirit of 
adventure, which had brought Hawkins, Drake, 
the Gilberts and others such honors and such 
renown, drew the young gallants fresh from 
their father's estates or from the wars in the Low 
Countries. And the term "Gentleman," as 
showing one of the arms-bearing class is con- 
stantly found in the list of immigrants. 

Captain John Smith, who had the good fort- 
une to become the best-known writer and his- 
torian of the first colony, began by decrying the 
class of gentlemen who had accompanied them, 
and who being, certainly at first, not accus- 
tomed to the laborious manual toil which fell to 
their lot, without doubt gave much trouble to 
their taskmasters. Yet, later on, he recorded 
the significant fact that these gentlemen cut 
down more trees than those who had been 
brought up to labor. The Governor and the 



136 THE OLD DOMINION 

Council in Virginia were all men of the upper 
class, and while the settlers were composed of 
men of every class, the names of the gentry 
predominate throughout the early years and 
compose a large percentage throughout the 
whole history of the colony. From the time 
that Sir Walter Raleigh impressed his spirit on 
the first explorers down to the time of Lord 
Dunmore, her last Colonial Governor, it was 
esteemed almost as essential that the Governor 
of Virginia should be a man of rank as it is that 
the Lord Lieutenants of Ireland or of Canada 
or the Viceroy of India should be such to-day. 
None but gentlemen were selected for the 
Governorship or the Council, and to have been 
a Councillor was in itself a proof of gentility. 
But there was ever a tendency to transplant the 
life of England as closely as might be to the 
new country. 

Much has been made in some quarters of the 
shipment to Virginia at certain times of bodies 
of convicts, and of a shipment of "chaste 
maids" as wives for a class of the settlers who 
paid for their passage. A number of such 
shipments were made: "wild gallants" and 
"dissolute persons" who followed the Court, or 
unfortunate adherents to the cause of a Mon- 
mouth, though the number who came over thus 



COLONIAL LIFE 137 

was very limited, that of the maids being, 
thought some of the settlers, far too limited, 
while the shipment of convicts was quickly 
stopped on the protest of the Virginians. But 
the introduction of these, like that of the in- 
dented servants, who worked out their passage, 
only served to widen the gap between them and 
the gentry, and to emphasize the distinctive 
aristocratic feature of Virginia society. The 
exactions of the new life steadily wrought their 
influence. Every man was a soldier on out- 
post duty. Every woman was on frontier serv- 
ice. Courage, force, endurance, constancy 
were demanded day by day, and day by day 
strengthened their fibre until a new people 
began to come into being. 

The breadth and freedom of the vast spaces 
about them entered into their spirit, and from 
the first, while they professed unbounded de- 
votion to their King and the Home Govern- 
ment, they were instant in their jealous watch- 
fulness of their rights and privileges. Happily 
for them, in their earliest charters, they had been 
granted by Elizabeth, and later by James, the 
rights, privileges and immunities of native-born 
citizens of Great Britain to them and their 
posterity, forever, and from the first protests of 
Archer and Martin, and other members of the 



138 THE OLD DOMINION 

first Colonial Council in 1607, down to the final 
Declaration of Independence, they, and their 
posterity, appealed to and relied on these char- 
ters of their liberties for the justice of their 
action. 

As the country developed, the grant of lands 
in large tracts to gentlemen, on condition that 
they should settle bodies of tenants on them, 
served to foster class-distinctions, and the set- 
tlement of separate plantations along the rivers 
wholly isolated, and surrounded by deadly 
enemies, created conditions somewhat feudal 
in their form, the planter-employer engaging to 
take care of his people and the latter binding 
themselves to work for him and march with him 
in any exigency demanding their service. Thus, 
when grants were made like that to William 
Byrd, of lands at the Falls of the James, the 
condition would be that the grantee should settle 
so many families on them and in time of danger 
furnish so many fighting men. This was the 
very form of feudalism. Whatever its short- 
comings were, its foundation was a duty owed 
by every one to some one else. The introduc- 
tion of slaves and of the indented servants served 
to establish the class-distinctions which already 
existed, and while the exactions of life in a new 
country offered opportunities to men of push 



COLONIAL LIFE 139 

and enterprise to rise, and by their courage and 
abilities enter the upper class, the history of the 
colony shows that, having risen, they promptly 
took to themselves titles, coats of arms and all 
the insignia of such a class. But this class had 
not only its privileges but its responsibilities. 

The cultivation of tobacco early proved a 
mine of wealth for the colony which no other 
colony possessed, and the exemption of the 
negroes from malaria made them among the 
most valuable settlers. 

The easiest and most secure means of inter- 
communication were along the rivers, where the 
fertile bottom-lands had in a generation or two, 
after the cultivation of tobacco began, enriched 
the landowners, and thus social life followed 
these waterways, and the old colonial houses 
along the James, the York, the Potomac, the 
Rappahannock and their tributaries, which are 
to-day among the most interesting relics of our 
past history, marked the rise of families of 
gentry, who for something like two hundred 
years made marriage alliances among them- 
selves, and built up a landed gentry whose 
history is one of the notable elements in the 
civilization of the country and the race. Aris- 
tocratic in its form, it contained the essential 
principle of Republicanism. Every freeholder 



i 4 o THE OLD DOMINION 

had a vote. There was much wealth; but little 
luxury in the modern acceptation of the term. 
The great landlord must be as hardy as his 
hunter; the mistress of the plantation must be 
as brave as her ancestress who defended her 
castle or her grange. 

Outside of the small class of students of the 
history of that time little is known of the work 
accomplished by this colony of Virginia and the 
people who founded it. Historians themselves 
have taken little account of the influence that 
this plantation and the work of its founders 
exerted in moulding anew the thought of the 
English people in the direction of liberty. Yet 
it was the necessity for a new form of govern- 
ment, adapted to the needs of a wholly new sys- 
tem of colonial existence, which brought the 
changes in the charters granted by the Crown to 
the people who undertook this settlement. The 
Virginia courts became the talk of the English 
People, and every session was thronged with 
interested onlookers studying the new system 
of government, until they came to be known as 
the Virginia Parliaments," and the Spanish 
Ambassador warned King James I. that his 
Virginia courts "were but a Seminary for a 
seditious Parliament"; and James, who was 
desirous to secure an alliance by marriage with 



COLONIAL LIFE 141 

Spain, set to work to suppress the liberties 
granted under the Virginia charter. 

Happily for Virginia and happily for the 
world, by the time that King James felt himself 
strong enough to attempt to suppress our 
liberties they had become too firmly estab- 
lished for his plan to be carried out. Sir Walter 
Raleigh fell a victim; but the great country 
which he had done so much to found, and of 
which he had been the first and " Chief Gover- 
nor," survived, and survived also the spirit 
which he had done so much to create. 

Virginia was Royalist, but she was Royalist 
as Raleigh and Southampton and Sandys were 
Royalists. And no Republican or Roundhead 
was ever more jealous for his rights than were 
her Royalist people. 

By 1619 when the first General Assembly met, 
"this people had got their reins of servitude 
into their own swindge," and thenceforth di- 
rected their own course. In 1624 the Virginia 
Assembly passed a law providing that no taxes 
should be levied or applied in Virginia but by 
and with the consent of the Virginia Assembly. 
And this was the very ground on which one 
hundred and fifty years later the American 
Revolution was based. From this time, during 
this one hundred and fifty years, the continual 



i 4 2 THE OLD DOMINION 

assertion of this right was the steadfast habit of 
the Virginia colony and the product of its civili- 
zation, for whether it was asserted in Virginia or 
in New England, it was based on the principle 
thus first enunciated and asserted by the Vir- 
ginia colony. 

In 1642 they boldly declared "freedom of 
trade to be the blood and life of a community."* 

From this time the people were aroused, and 
not many years later when one of their gov- 
ernors, Sir John Harvey, failed to espouse as 
warmly as they thought proper the cause of 
William Claiborne, "the Rebel, ,, in his war 
with the Lord Proprietor of the new colony of 
Maryland, they rose and "thrust him out of the 
Government." This was the first Revolution 
that actually took place on American soil. 
When Charles II. was a fugitive before Crom- 
well, the Virginians offered him a crown, and 
when Cromwell, victorious in England, under- 
took to trample on their rights, he found them 
so stubborn in their opposition that the ships 
he had sent to subdue them were fain to make 
peace with them, almost as an independent 
power. They withstood him to the point of 
exacting, in 1652, what was in effect a treaty 
with his commissioners: expressly stipulating 

* Hcning's Stats, at Large, I., 223. 



COLONIAL LIFE 143 

that it was not on compulsion, but was volun- 
tarily done, and reserving the right to levy all 
taxes and make local laws; but they readily 
assimilated the defeated Royalists who came 
after Edge Hill and Worcester, and the exiled 
Republicans who sought homes among the 
planters after the Restoration. 

When, later, Charles became King of England, 
and, unmindful of the loyalty of his Virginia 
subjects, undertook to grant the Northern Neck 
to three of his Court favorites, the Virginians 
flamed up so threateningly that the King was 
forced to withdraw the grant. 

Fifteen years later, when the Royal Governor 
refused the planters on the frontier permission 
to raise an army to defend themselves against 
the Indians, they rallied behind young Nathaniel 
Bacon, seized Jamestown, and forced from the 
Governor and his adherents on the Council the 
laws they demanded, and when, later, Sir William 
Berkeley withdrew his consent and declared 
them Rebels, they stormed and burnt the capital, 
and Berkeley was forced to take refuge on the 
Eastern Shore. Later, factions among the 
Revolutionists and the illness of the leader, 
Bacon, enabled Berkeley to recoup his loss; the 
revolutionists were defeated and scattered, and 
Berkeley hanged so many of them that King 



i 44 THE OLD DOMINION 

Charles removed him, saying that he had hanged 
more men in that naked country for his rebellion 
than the King had hanged for the murder of his 
father. But though the participants were defeated 
and punished, the cause was not lost. The rights 
still survived, as survived also the resolution to 
claim them and make the claim good. 

By this time up and down the broad rivers the 
landed proprietors had their own wharfs and 
their own ships to carry their produce to Eng- 
land, and they throve and grew rich on it, not- 
withstanding the trade-laws which hampered 
their traffic. The records are full of their pro- 
tests against these regulations; protests against 
import taxes; protests against the further im- 
portation of slaves; protests against unequal 
trade regulations. 

In 1 718 the penny-a-letter postage on letters 
from England was resisted on the ground that 
Parliament could not levy a tax without the 
consent of the General Assembly.* 

For Education the planters imported college- 
bred teachers from home, as England was 
called, or sent their children to England to be 
educated there in the public schools and the 
universities of Oxford and Cambridge. 

* "The Colonial Virginian," an Address by R. A. Brock, p. 15. 
" Spotswood's Letters," II., p. 280. 



COLONIAL LIFE 145 

Old Sir William Berkeley is said to have 
thanked God that in his day there were neither 
free schools — that is, classical schools — nor 
printing presses in the colony, and he trusted 
there might not be for three hundred years. 
But the declaration, if ever made by him, was 
untrue in fact, for a free school had been estab- 
lished in Elizabeth City County in 1634 by be- 
quest of Benjamin Symes: "the first legacy 
made for that purpose by a resident of the 
American plantations," and other free schools 
followed in the benefactions of Virginia plant- 
ers: one in Gloucester County in 1675, founded 
by Henry Plasiby, another in Yorktown in 1601, 
founded by Gov. Nicholson; one in Westmore- 
land County in 1700, by William Horton; one 
in Accomack in 17 10, by Samuel Sanford, and 
one in Elizabeth City, by Thomas Eaton.* 
Indeed, within twenty years from the removal 
of Berkeley, the projected College of Henricus, 
which had disappeared in the massacre of 1622, 
had a successor which was to produce, possibly, 
the most notable list of graduates that any in- 
stitution of learning has had in this country. 
William and Mary College, founded in 1698, at 
the new seat of government only a half dozen 

* "The Colonial Virginian," an Address by R. A. Brock, p. 16. 
Beverley, p. 240. 



146 THE OLD DOMINION 

miles from Jamestown, and being second in 
point of time only to Harvard, became a verita- 
ble factory of patriots. There the Grymeses, the 
Byrds, the Blands,.the Pages,, the Harrisons, the 
Lees, the Randolphs, and many others of the old 
families of the colony secured the liberal educa- 
tion which they put to such admirable use in the 
days when the Rights of the colonies engrossed 
all the energies of America, and overshadowed 
all other discussion. There Thomas Jefferson 
obtained the- learning and developed the skill 
which made him, as John Adams said, "the 
most graceful pen in America," and thus led to 
the young Virginian's drafting the Declaration 
of Independence. 

As the years progressed and the settlements 
extended farther to the westward, other ele- 
ments came in: stout Scotch and Scotch-Irish 
settlers poured into the western districts from 
Scotland and North Ireland, particularly after 
the various revolutions. A strong infusion of 
Huguenot blood followed, and gave the Old 
Dominion some of her most noted sons. 

Thus, the population of the Old Dominion 
was composed of sundry strains, all virile, and 
as the race pushed westward they carried with 
them the distinctive civilization which still 
shows to-day along the lines they travelled, 



COLONIAL LIFE 147 

leaving its impress in Kentucky, Tennessee, 
southern Ohio, Missouri, and sections of many 
other States, and materially affecting all of 
them. For the civilization of the Old Dominion, 
while naturally more clearly preserved within 
her own borders, is not limited to her own long 
shrunken confines. As the oldest, wealthiest, and 
strongest colony, she, during the Colonial period, 
most strongly influenced the life of all the colonies, 
leading them finally in their action of breaking 
the ties which bound them to the old country. 
The Character of the Virginians was remarked 
on by their fellow-members in the Colonial 
Congress, which adopted the Declaration. "The 
Virginia, and indeed, all the Southern delegates," 
wrote Silas Deane, "appear like men of import- 
ance. . . . They are sociable, sensible and spir- 
ited men." Not a milksop among them, was 
the judgment of one who appeared to think that 
some of the other delegations were not so free 
from this charge. 

Whatever the faults of the Virginians were 
they were the faults of a virile and independent 
race. Their virtues and their vices were those 
of the corresponding English classes from which 
they came, modified by the conditions which 
surrounded them in the new country. Every 
planter was to some extent a captain— a ruler 



I 



148 THE OLD DOMINION 

over things few or many; but yet a ruler. And 
the qualities developed were those of a ruling 
class. But there was a class which existed 
far below this ruler-class also with virile traits 
and clean-cut character. It was not depen- 
dency; for they were in jtheir poverty as inde- 
pendent as their wealthier neighbors. Slavery 
had not, as has so often been insisted, destroyed 
the dignity of labor, so much as it had furnished 
the laborers to perform most of the work. Thus, 
there was not the call for labor that existed 
in countries where the laborers were all free. 
Those who in other countries or sections com- 
posed the laboring class in the South were known 
as "poor whites," but however poor they were 
they retained their personal independence. 
They despised all menial employment and lived 
much as their ancestors had lived. Poor but 
independent, they exhibited the traits of front- 
iersmen, lovers of the woods; fond of fishing 
and hunting, and often skilled woodsmen; 
hospitable and kindly, pleasant in manner, firm 
in friendship and fierce in enmity; ready to 
follow the lead of the upper class; but stout 
in their opinions when formed, and tenacious 
of their rights. 

Benjamin Harrison, the Signer, related how 
the men of this class came to him and his col- 



COLONIAL LIFE 149 

leagues, as they were setting forth to Philadelphia 
at the outbreak of the Revolution, and told them 
that they confided their interests to them and 
would stand by them in whatever conclusion 
they might reach. And the same thing occurred 
at the outbreak of the Civil War. 

They lived the life of Englishmen according 
to their several orders, making due allowance 
for the widely changed conditions amid which 
they found themselves placed. Their amuse- 
ments were those which they had brought from 
England to which they naturally added those of 
a frontier life. 

A picture of the life is contained in the old 
Virginia Gazette, published at Williamsburg 
about the year 1737, which represents the life 
at that time in my native county of Hanover. 

"We have" says the Gazette, "advices from 
Hanover County that on St. Andrews Day there 
are to be Horse-Races and several other Diver- 
sions for the Entertainment of the Gentlemen and 
Ladies at the Old Field near Capt. John Bicker- 
ton^ in that county (if permitted by the Honor- 
able William Byrd, Esquire, Proprietor of said 
Land) the substance of which is as follows, viz. : 

"It is proposed that 20 Horses and Mares 
will run around a three mile Course for a purse 
of Five Pounds. 



i 5 o THE OLD DOMINION 

"That a Hat of the value of 20 s. be cudgelled 
for and that after the first challenge made the 
Drums are to beat every Quarter of an hour for 
three Challenges round the ring and none to 
play with their left hand. 

"That a Violin be played for by 20 fiddlers; 
no person to have the liberty of playing unless he 
bring a fiddle with him. After the prize is won 
they are all to play together and each a different 
tune and to be treated by the company. 

"That 12 boys 12 years of age do run 112 
yards for a Hat of the cost of 12 shillings. 

"That a Flag be flying on said Day 30 feet 
high. 

'That a handsome Entertainment be pro- 
vided for the subscribers and their wives; and 
such of them as are not so happy as to have 
wives may treat any other lady. 

"That Drums, Trumpets, Hautboys, etc., be 
provided to play at said Entertainment. 

'That after Dinner the Royal Health, his 
Honor the Governor's, etc., are to be drunk. 

'That a Quire of Ballads be sung for by a 
number of Songsters, all of them to have Liquor 
sufficient to clear their windpipes. 

'That a pair of Silver Buckles be wrestled for 
by a number of brisk young men. 

'Thatapair of handsome Shoes be danced for. 



COLONIAL LIFE i 5 i 

"That a handsome pair of Silk Stockings of 
one pistole value be given to the handsomest 
young Country Maid that appears in the field. 

"With many other Whimsical and Comical 
Diversions too numerous to mention. ..." 

When, towards the end of the third quarter 
of the eighteenth century, the age-long conflict 
which had gone on between the Government of 
England and her colonies culminated in the 
great Revolution which produced the American 
nation, it might have appeared to the casual 
observer, as it actually appeared to George the 
Third, that the only hope of the people of those 
colonies, stretched in a thin line along the 
Atlantic seaboard, was in absolute and un- 
qualified submission. Their material interests 
were in many ways conflicting; their historical 
traditions were to some extent divergent; their 
religion was somewhat different at least, as man- 
ifested in their forms of worship. Indeed, in 
the same colony the material interests and the 
traditions of different classes of the inhabitants 
differed. But they were unified by one principle 
which was common to all the colonies and to 
all the classes therein. Love of liberty and in- 
dependence of view, fostered by the experiences 
of an almost wholly new method of life and 
wholly new conditions had had its extraordinary 



i 5 2 THE OLD DOMINION 

growth during the whole period of the American 
settlement. 

Moreover, they were unified by their char- 
acter. From one end of the country to the other 
the people arrayed themselves in defence of their 
rights as freemen, throwing all other considera- 
tions to the winds, so they might establish Lib- 
erty in their country. But the Virginians led. 
The Government and the Constitution under 
which that government is exercised sprang from 
the Character of our fathers. The tree of Lib- 
erty, which has grown until it has come to shelter 
almost the whole earth, had its roots in that 
Character. But for their character the great 
questions on which the Revolution was fought 
out would never have arisen; but for their char- 
acter the Revolution would never have succeed- 
ed; but for their character the surrender of 
selfish advantages would never have taken place, 
and the Union, under a Constitutional govern- 
ment, based on such surrender for the good of 
all, would never have been established. 



IV 
THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 



PHE year 1776 is not, as centuries are reck- 
oned, very far away, still less, as the steps 
of Liberty are reckoned, was it distant from the 
date when Liberty was a poor and puny thing; 
walking with painful steps along the paths 
which often led to the dungeon or the scaffold, 
liable to be cut off forever by the mailed hand 
of a King's Pretorian guard. 

The year 1776, however, may be almost taken 
as the birth year of Liberty as we know it; of true 
Liberty which can never be slain except by her 
own hand. Events have followed each other so 
rapidly in the last century — the current has 
swept us so swiftly from the old moorings that 
the time appears longer than it is. 

A number of persons still survive who re- 
member some of the participants in the drama 
of 1776. 

In the year 1776 the American colonies, in- 

153 



i 5 4 THE OLD DOMINION 

stead of being one of the great Powers of the 
world, possibly the strongest, and certainly the 
wealthiest and the best able to sustain itself in- 
dependently of the rest of the world, were a very 
insignificant and poor collection of dependent 
colonies hugging the sea-coast from Mount 
Desert Island to the northern line of Florida. 
It was a long line, covering some two thou- 
sand miles, with many a break of wilderness 
stretching between the settlements, with their 
back to the vast wilderness, peopled with 
savages, ready to crouch and spring at the first 
opportunity; and with their eyes turned in 
continual appeal to the mother country, which 
many still called "home." The population 
numbered something like three millions, about 
as many as are now embraced in the City of 
New York, and half as many again as are now 
within the borders of Virginia. They were 
mainly of English descent; though a small 
proportion were French Huguenots, a sturdy 
stock, and about fifteen per cent, were Negroes 
and slaves. The frontier, which until about 
fifty years before had been the Allegheny 
Mountains, had within a generation been pushed 
by hardy and adventurous settlers to the western 
lakes and to the banks of the Ohio. Beyond, 
to the north and to the west, lay the boundless 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 155 

forests of France, and to the south lay Spain, 
while savage Indians ever lurked along the 
border ready to invade and slay almost with 
impunity. 

As few in number as they appeared to be, 
they were rendered fyy their distant separation 
even more feeble, more insignificant than their 
numbers would seem to indicate. They were 
not united by the ordinary bonds of a common 
religion and a common interest. The major 
portion of them, it is true, were Protestants, 
but even they were divided. New England was 
almost entirely of the dissenting faith, a people 
filled with the spirit of Puritanism, who saw 
but one side, reckoned a Churchman little better 
than a papist, and classed both with the Devil; 
her history was the history of opposition. While, 
on the other hand, Virginia and the other South 
em colonies were mainly of the Established 
Church, and the laws of intolerance yet stood on 
the statute books or had been but lately expunged. 

Considered by classes we find them equally 
divided. Class distinctions had ^een largely 
destroyed in the major part of New England, 
but in Virginia and in some other colonies they 
yet existed, and a class of large landowners gave 
themselves the airs and filled, with reasonable 
success, the position of an aristocracy. 



156 THE OLD DOMINION 

Even the common interest of commerce was 
lacking. All were dependent on England, and 
in trade, such as existed, the colonies were 
rivals rather than sisters. 

If we look at the settlements we find them 
strangely small and insignificant. Philadelphia, 
Boston, Newport, New York, Portsmouth, 
York, Baltimore, Hampton, St. Mary's, Alex- 
andria, Norfolk, Charleston, were, perhaps, 
the only considerable towns in the country. 

On the other hand, England was almost at 
the zenith of her power, if not her glory, at home 
and abroad. Less than a hundred years be- 
fore she had fought out her Revolution and 
established her charter of liberty, her bill of 
rights. Since that time she had conquered and 
laid the ghost of the Stuart invasion; she had 
defeated her hereditary enemy, France, both by 
sea and land; had forced her from the Low 
Countries; had wrested from her grasp India 
and the East; had reduced her fleets from the 
first to the second place, and now within ten 
years, with the aid of her colonists, had torn 
from her her northernmost American colony 
and had driven her from the Atlantic sea- 
board. 

It was the same at home. With Peace, 
her internal affairs appeared to have advanced 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 157 

with a bound. Her commerce suddenly 
swelled to an unprecedented volume. Wealth 
beyond the dream of avarice poured into her 
coffers. 

In Letters — even in Art — she was on the top- 
most wave of her glory. Hume, Gibbon and 
Robertson were her historians. Goldsmith and 
Gray were among her poets, and Reynolds, 
Gainsborough and Romney were among her 
painters. Her greatest chancellor had but 
lately retired from the woolsack, while Lord 
Mansfield was yet her chief justice. Her states- 
men—Chatham, Burke, North, Fox and others 

were not esteemed second to any whom she 

had ever had on her long roll of great men 
who had guided and maintained her destinies 
throughout her period of glory. 

It must, indeed, have appeared to an onlooker, 
as it appeared to the Home Government, as 
though the colonies were mad to defy her to the 
point of war. Nor were the Americans ignorant 
of her power. They kept in close touch with 
her. They dealt with her constantly; sending 
her the product of their forests and plantations, 
and bringing from her warehouses almost every 
comfort and convenience of life. 

They knew that in the time of their grand- 
fathers her navies had swept the seas, and her 



158 THE OLD DOMINION 

soldiery had humbled the vast power of the 
Grand Monarch. They knew that but a few 
years before, at the end of the Seven Years' War, 
she had wrested from France her most cherished 
Western possession. They had felt the thrill 
of all this as Englishmen in blood, and as 
Englishmen they had contributed their part 
towards its accomplishment. Among them 
were the descendants of that gallant officer 
who was knighted for bearing to England the 
dispatches announcing the victory of Blen- 
heim, and among them was the young officer 
who had saved the remnant of Braddock's ill- 
starred force. 

They fed on her Literature, sent their sons to 
her schools, and kept time with her progress. 

To what, then, was the Revolution due ? To 
one sole cause: to the invasion of the rights of 
English citizens — in other words, to the spirit 
of Liberty that animated the souls of those who 
had struck their roots deep into the American 
soil: to the spirit of Free institutions which 
flamed in every colony and in every class. From 
northern Maine to southern Georgia, gentle and 
simple; churchman and dissenter alike cher- 
ished it. 

To get at the reason for it we must go a long 
way back. Traditions count for -much, espe- 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 159 

cially among a rural people. And the people 
who settled America had been bred on tradi- 
tions of Liberty. From the time of Alfred down 
throughout the long struggle, at first of Baron 
against King, and then of Commoner against 
King and Baron, their history had been the his- 
tory of wresting Liberty from Tyranny. At 
Runnymede the Barons had been strong because 
their retainers were at their back. In West- 
minster the Commons had been brave because 
the shires were behind them. At Edgehill and 
Naseby, at Worcester and Boyne-water Crom- 
well and William had won because the people 
were fighting for their English liberties. In 
Virginia, especially, tradition had the weight of 
unwritten law. When they came across the 
water they had brought their Liberties with them 
as the Children of Israel bore the Ark of the 
Covenant in their midst. And whenever the 
occasion arose the Ark was borne before them. 

Often it appeared to be in danger of abandon- 
ment, but at need the cry was always heard : " To 
your tents, O Israel," and heard, it was obeyed. 

All through their history on this side they had 
stood for their Liberties as English citizens. 

Within five years after the assembling of their 
first House of Burgesses in 1619, and ten years 
before any other colony had an assembly, the 



160 THE OLD DOMINION 

Virginia Assembly declared that "The Gov- 
ernor shall not lay any tax or impositions upon 
the Colony, their lands or commodities, other- 
way than by the authority of the General As- 
sembly, to be levied and employed as the said 
Assembly shall appoynt."* 

Subservient as they may have appeared at 
times to the Crown as represented by the royal 
governors, addressing petitions with a humility 
of phrase which sounds strangely fulsome to 
modern republican ears, there were certain 
Rights which neither King nor Parliament could 
touch without arousing a resentment which both 
had been wont to heed. They called them the 
Inalienable Rights of Citizens. And they knew, 
as we know to-day, that they had been won by 
hard fighting. 

A hundred years before 1776 Revolution had 
flamed through Virginia, kindled by the invasion 
of the right of self-protection, and her capital 
had been laid in ashes. It had been stamped 
out in blood; but the blood of Patriots is the 
seed of Liberty. And Liberty is the inalienable 
heritage of the Anglo-Saxon. Its flame is the 
divine fire which, ever burning in his breast, dis- 
tinguishes him from all other men. 

From this time on they had ever stood for 

* Henning's "Statutes at Large," I., 124. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 161 

their rights as free citizens, and the hundred 
years which had passed had been spent in the 
assertion and, whenever necessary, the main- 
tenance of those rights. As universally happens 
under government by alien governors, the results 
reflected largely the personal character of the in- 
dividuals who held the office of governor. Under 
a Spotswood or a Botetourt, the people had 
clemency and consideration, if not justice, and 
felt that they were understood and befriended 
by their governors. Under a Harvey, a Berke- 
ley or a Dunmore, they felt that they were mis- 
understood and were treated with hostility. It 
is the essential and inherent vice of governing by 
absentee rulers, and the inherent weakness of 
it is that the ruling power, however strong, does 
not know the depth and the strength of the 
feeling within, which may be pent up until it 
bursts forth in Revolution. 

Too often the only contact with the Home 
Government had resulted in ignominious treat- 
ment and sometimes in galling insult. The 
conduct of that Government was the oft-re- 
peated story of self-centred phariseeism, think- 
ing that it knows the problems of another region 
better than those know them to whom they are 
as vital as the breath they breathe. And as in 
such cases always, the result was a fiasco. 



1 62 THE OLD DOMINION 

"Damn your souls! raise tobacco!" flared out 
Seymour to Parson Blair, the esteemed commis- 
sary of the old College of William and Mary. 
As if the people were not raising tobacco. 

These things had sunk deep into their hearts. 

But deeper yet were the real grievances. 

As in most instances, we find that the violation 
of rights also affected their interests. 

The Acts in the Restraint of Trade had touched 
the pocket of every man in the Colonies. That 
England should regulate their commerce and 
not only fix the prices for their products, but 
refuse to permit them to trade elsewhere except 
through her ports, was a real grievance. In the 
same way, that she should not permit them to 
exclude the further introduction of slaves within 
their borders was a grievance — how real some 
of us can form an opinion on to-day after nearly 
two hundred years. 

When to these was added the assertion by 
England of the right to bind by law without giv- 
ing Representation, and to withdraw the protec- 
tion of the great Writs of privilege, the injury 
was very real indeed. To yield would have 
been to surrender themselves as slaves. 

Remonstrance after remonstrance had been 
addressed to the Crown, each one couched in 
terms respectful enough, but each firmer than 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 163 

its predecessor in tone and assertion. This 
humility of expression had begun to gall the 
withers that had been so long wrung. 

It appears as though Providence, watching 
over the growth of Liberty, had so set her im- 
mutable laws that at this juncture all things 
conspired to establish her in her home, with 
foundations laid deep in this broad Western 
world. Had but reasonable consideration been 
shown on the other side, this Nation might never 
have come into being. 

But, "the Monarch was mad and the Minister 
blind." 

And though every effort was made on the 
part of the colonists to settle the differences on 
grounds consistent with their Liberties, they were 
unavailing. Submission but brought forth only 
truculence. "They must either triumph or sub- 
mit," said George III. "I am unalterably de- 
termined," he wrote to Lord North on August 
18, 1775, "at every hazard and at the risk of 
every consequence to compel the Colonies to 
absolute submission." 

"I remember," said Jefferson, speaking of 
Franklin's minutes of the negotiations between 
him and Lord North to prevent the contest of 
arms which followed, — " I remember that Lord 
North's answers were dry, unyielding, in the 



1 64 THE OLD DOMINION 

spirit of unconditional submission and betrayed 
an absolute indifference to the occurrence of a 
rupture, and he said to the mediators distinctly 
at last that a rebellion was not to be deprecated 
on the part of Great Britain, and that the con- 
fiscations would provide for many of their 
friends. " * 

"George, be King," used to say his silly 
mother to him. And George was trying to be 
king and was making a mess of it. 

"A better farmer ne'er brushed dew from lawn, 
A worse king ne'er left a realm undone." 

The only answer to subservience was a kick. 

"The Governor dissolved us as usual," says 
Jefferson, speaking of the dissolution that fol- 
lowed the appointment by the Virginia House of 
Burgesses of a day of fasting and prayer, for the 
purpose of showing their deep feeling over the 
shutting up of the port of Boston. 

A dissolution at that time was a serious mat- 
ter. Every member had come on horseback 
from his home through forests and often through 
almost trackless wilderness. Some had come 
from far beyond the mountains in remote Au- 
gusta and Transylvania, the present State of 
Kentucky. 

* Randolph's "Life of Jefferson," I., p. 89. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 165 

The day of subservience had, however, passed 
away; the answer to the dissolution of an As- 
sembly was now a Convention. 

In fact, the colonists knew that however their 
grants might run in terms, however dependent 
on the Crown they appeared by their phraseol- 
ogy, they had themselves wrested their holdings 
from the Savage and the Wild; had themselves 
builded and maintained their homes in what had 
once been the untenable wilderness and had 
themselves established their governments. There 
was not an acre that had not been cleared and 
fought for; there was not a house that had not 
been built by arduous toil; there was not a right 
that had not been won at the end of a struggle 
and at the expense of fortitude. 

Happily for the colonists, they had friends on 
the other side. And happily for England, the 
assumption of arbitrary power had sent a thrill 
of fear through her as well as through the colo- 
nies. The issue of General Warrants had been 
fought out in the Wilkes case in 1765, at the 
very time when America was in the throes of 
her Stamp Act revolution, and as a sequel, that 
foundation-stone of Liberty, that mightiest en- 
gine for her preservation, the Freedom of the 
Press, had been established. 

Pitt, that "trumpet of sedition," as George 



166 THE OLD DOMINION 

called him, with those who were wise enough to 
see it, recognized that America was fighting their 
battle no less than her own. "He gloried in the 
resistance which was denounced in Parliament 
as rebellion. 'In my opinion,' he said, 'this 
kingdom has no right to lay a tax on the colonies. 
. . . America is obstinate; America is almost in 
open rebellion. Sir, I rejoice that America has 
resisted. Three millions of people so dead to 
all the feelings of liberty as voluntarily to submit 
to be slaves would have been fit instruments to 
make slaves of the rest. ,,, 

The difficulty was to secure the united action 
of the colonies, and without union the chance of 
success was hopeless. Happily, George gave 
the occasion for union by proving its necessity. 
" George was, in fact/' says Green, the historian, 
"sole Minister during the fifteen years which fol- 
lowed, and the shame of the darkest hour of 
English history lies wholly at his door." * 

The value of union among the colonists was 
well understood, and had been the subject of 
discussion and the subject of solicitude among 
the leaders. 

The idea of union for defence was almost as 
old as the earliest wars in which the colonists 
engaged. It had nearly taken shape in June, 

* "Short History of the English People," p. 737. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 167 

1754, when commissioners from seven of the 
colonies met in convention at Albany for the 
purpose of strengthening their treaties with the 
Indians, and for devising a plan of union. In- 
deed, they recommended a plan of union drawn 
up by Franklin, which contained the germinal 
ideas of the American union. But it fell 
through. 

Now the necessity of union was more pressing 
than ever. 

"We must all hang together," said one, as 
they stood about the desk signing the Declara- 
tion of Independence. 

"Yes," answered Franklin, "or we shall all 
hang separately." 

The utmost care was used by the leaders to 
so direct public events that they should meet with 
the approval and secure the co-operation of all 
the colonists. The Committees of Public Safety, 
and the Committees of Correspondence were com- 
posed of the best men in the colonies, and they 
gave their utmost energies to raising and welding 
together the sympathies of all the colonies. 

The importance of the Stamp Act in the 
history of the movement is that it affected the 
interests of every one and thus made a common 
cause for which every one would stand. 

When the Stamp Act was passed and the at- 



168 THE OLD DOMINION 

tempt was made to enforce it in 1765, the col- 
onies made common cause. When the Stamp 
Act was repealed and only enough of the law 
was left by the tax on tea to maintain the right 
of Great Britain to tax her colonies by her laws 
without giving them representation they still 
stood together. When the right was asserted in 
Rhode Island, that "little acre of freedom, ,, by 
Great Britain to send Americans to England to 
be tried for offences committed in America, it 
awakened the colonies to the imperative neces- 
sity of united opposition. 

"We were all sensible," said Jefferson after- 
wards,* speaking of the action of the Virginia 
Assembly in 1773, "that the most urgent of all 
measures was that of coming to an understand- 
ing with all the other colonies to consider the 
British claims as a common cause to all and to 
produce a unity of action. " 

It was to forward this that Committees of Cor- 
respondence between the colonies were formed. 

In this measure, as in many others, though the 
honor has been claimed by our younger sister, 
Massachusetts, the great weight of authority 
goes to show that, while Massachusetts first 
started Committees of Correspondence in the 
several cities of that colony, the Colony of Vir- 

* Randolph's "Life of Jefferson," p. 4. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 169 

ginia started the idea of correspondence between 
the several colonies, looking to a confederation 
of the colonies, and finally leading to a union. 

Says Jefferson, "Mr. Marshall in his history 
of General Washington, Chapter 3, speaking of 
this proposition for Committees of Correspond- 
ence and for a General Congress, says, * this 
measure had already been proposed in town 
meeting in Boston/ and some pages before he 
had said that, 'At a session of the General Court 
of Massachusetts in September, 1770, that 
Court in pursuance of a favorite idea of uniting 
all the Colonies in one system of measures, 
elected a Committee of Correspondence to com- 
municate with such Committees as might be ap- 
pointed by the other Colonies.' This is an 
error. The Committees of Correspondence 
elected by Massachusetts were expressly for a 
correspondence among the several towns of that 
province only. Besides the text of their pro- 
ceedings, his own note X., proves this. The 
first proposition for a general correspondence be- 
tween the several States and for a General Con- 
gress was made by our meeting of May, 1774. 
Botta, copying Marshall, has repeated his error; 
so it will be handed on from copyist to copyist, 
ad infinitum" 

The correction of this error is due to Virginia. 



1 7 o THE OLD DOMINION 

But, unequal as the struggle between England 
and her colonies might appear on the surface, 
there were conditions which tended to make it 
more even. 

Their life had fitted the Americans for such a 
struggle. It is possible that throughout the 
colonies there was not a person who was not in- 
ured to hardship and ready to bear his part in 
whatever came. Men and women alike faced 
the conditions with undaunted hearts. Hall 
and farm-house and mountain cabin all held 
intrepid souls. The very boys were ready to 
enlist and fight as men. 

Nature, moving with resistless step, had 
throughout the long years been training the 
people for just this crisis. For generations they 
had been inured to fighting Indians. They had 
fought the French on the north and northwest 
and the Spaniards on the south. Andrew 
Lewis, with his brave frontiersmen, had crushed 
the Indian power at the Great Kenawha. And 
now, just at the crucial moment, they had had 
an opportunity to witness and judge from per- 
sonal observation the fighting qualities of the 
far-famed English regulars. Washington, a 
young and untried officer, had fought the French 
and Indians at Great Meadows and, though 
forced to capitulate, had marched out with the 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 171 

honors of war, and the next year Braddock, with 
picked regiments of regulars, had been defeated 
and routed disastrously. His troops had been 
saved from annihilation only by the courage and 
the wisdom of the young American volunteer. 
By this test the prestige of the redoubted regulars 
had been lowered, and America had found out, 
after all, that on her own soil, man for man, she 
was better than they. Better than they, not be- 
cause braver than they, for, indeed, they were 
brave enough and to spare. But better because, 
while the British, animated by physical courage, 
fought for duty or for fame, the Americans, in- 
spired by the spirit of free institutions, and thus 
thrice armed, fought for Home and Liberty. 

So, Fate, with sure and steady hand, was 
leading them along the path to the heights 
where Liberty with her torch lighted the way to 
Freedom. 

In fact, war, though not declared, was really 
on them. 

In April, 1775, the embattled farmers and 
minute men of Massahusetts had "fired the 
shot heard 'round the world. " The Virginia 
uprising had proved less bloody; for when 
Virginia flamed and Patrick Henry led his 
"gentlemen independents of Hanover" and his 
Caroline men to Williamsburg to demand resti- 



i;2 THE OLD DOMINION 

tution of the powder taken by night from Vir- 
ginia's magazine, Dunmore, at Peyton Ran- 
dolph's instance, had placated them by paying 
for it. England was now massing her troops 
about Boston; and her war- vessels were cruising 
in every bay along the coast. Dunmore had 
abandoned the capital of Virginia, and, after 
taking refuge on a warship, was ravaging Vir- 
ginia's seaboard, arming her slaves, and threaten- 
ing her Convention, even in their assembly-hall. 

The colonies were arming with all haste. 
Virginia had sent her Washington, her best 
tried soldier, to command the Continental 
forces in the distant colony of Massachusetts. 

" It was easy to distinguish him from all the 
rest," says Thatcher of him, on his first appear- 
ance as he rode into Cambridge. 

It is still easy, after a hundred and thirty 
years, to distinguish him from all the rest. 
Sprung from Virginia's soil, compact of the ele- 
ments that have given distinction to the char- 
acter that bears her stamp; country-bred; level- 
headed rather than clever; direct and straight- 
forward rather than astute or keen; inspired 
by her traditions; tempered on the anvil of 
adversity to be the truest instrument that 
Providence had ever fashioned to its hand; fol- 
lowing with divine patience and divine humility 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 173 

the call of Duty, that lordly Virginian rides 
down the years, still easily distinguished from 
all the rest. And the only one of all the com- 
pany who bears a close resemblance to him 
was, like him, a Virginian also. 



II 

With a view to understanding just the situa- 
tion when the convention sat, let us for a mo- 
ment turn aside out of the clangor of revolution 
and picture to ourselves the external appear- 
ance of Virginia's capital, and then we shall 
come to those who made it what it is to-day — a 
shrine of Liberty. . Fortunately, we have the 
picture of the town, drawn by a facile and 
friendly pen — that of the Rev. Hugh Jones — 
about three-quarters of a century before the sit- 
ting of the convention that declared for Inde- 
pendence. 

"Public buildings hereof note," he says, "are 
the College, the Capitol, the Governor's House, 
and the Church." Observe that he puts the Col- 
lege first; and he describes it with much warmth. 
Next comes a description of the capitol: 

"Fronting the College at near its whole 
breadth is extended a noble street mathemati- 
cally straight (for the first design of the town 



i 7 4 THE OLD DOMINION 

form is changed to a much better) just three- 
quarters of a mile in length: At the other end 
of which stands the Capitol, a noble, beautiful 
and commodious pile as any of its kind, built 
at the cost of the late Queen, and by the direc- 
tion of the Governor. 

"In this is the Secretary's Office, with all the 
Courts of Justice and Law, held in the same 
form, and near the same manner as in England, 
except the Ecclesiastical Courts. 

"Here the Governor and twelve Counsellors 
sit as Judges at the General Courts in April 
and October, whither trials and causes are re- 
moved from Courts held at the Court Houses 
monthly in every County by a Bench of Justices 
and a County Clerk. 

"Here are also held the Oyer and the Ter- 
miner Courts, one in Summer and the other in 
Winter, added by the charity of the late Queen 
for the prevention of prisoners lying in goal 
above a quarter of a year before their trial. 

" Here are also held Courts Martial by Judges 
appointed on purpose for the trial of pirates; 
likewise, Courts of Admiralty for the trial of 
ships for illegal trade. 

r The building is in the form of an 'H' 
nearly; the Secretary's Office, and the General 
Court taking up one side below stairs; the 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 175 

middle being a handsome portico leading to the 
Clerk of the Assembly's Office, and the House 
of Burgesses on the other side; which last is 
not unlike the House of Commons. 

"In each wing is a good staircase, one leading 
to the Council Chamber, where the Governor 
and Council sit in very great state, in imitation 
of the King and Council, or the Lord Chan- 
cellor and House of Lords. 

"Over the portico is a large room where Con- 
ferences are held and prayers are read by the 
Chaplain to the General Assembly; which 
office I have had the honor for some years to 
perform. At one end of this is a lobby, and 
near it is the Clerk of the Council's Office; and 
at the other end are several Chambers for the 
Committees of Claims, Privileges and Elections; 
and all over these are several good offices for 
the Receiver General, for the Auditor, Treas- 
urer, Etc., and upon the middle is raised a 
lofty cupola with a large clock. 

"The whole is surrounded with a neat area 
encompassed with a good wall, and near it is a 
strong, sweet prison for criminals; and on the 
other side of an open court another for debtors, 
when they are removed either from other 
prisons in each county; but such prisons are 
very rare, the creditors being there generally 



176 THE OLD DOMINION 

very merciful, and the Laws so favorable for 
debtors that some esteem them too indulgent. 

"The cause of my being so particular in 
describing the Capitol is because it is the best 
and most commodious pile of its kind that I 
have seen or heard of. 

" Because the State House, Jamestown, and 
the College have been burnt down, therefore is 
prohibited in the Capitol the use of fire, candles, 
and tobacco. 

"At the Capitol at public times may be seen 
a great number of handsome, well-dressed, com- 
plete gentlemen. And at the Governor's House 
upon Birth-Nights, and at Balls and Assem- 
blies, I have seen as fine an appearance, as good 
diversion, and as splendid entertainments in 
Governor Spotswood's time, as I have seen any- 
where else. 

'These buildings here described are justly 
reputed the best in all the English America, and 
are exceeded by few of their kind in England." 

I fancy that his Reverence's pen ran some- 
what away with him in his enthusiasm to picture 
Virginia's capital for his friends in Westminster. 
I seem to see in his flowery description some- 
thing of the generous warmth which always 
surges about the heart of Virginians when her 
memory comes to them in a far country. But, 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 177 

at least, we know that he spoke the simple truth 
about the "complete gentlemen." 

I have given the picture at length, partly be- 
cause it shows the life of the Virginians who 
brought on the Revolution and their relation to 
the government, and partly because, making 
due allowance for his Reverence's warmth of 
feeling, the old town which he so affectionately 
described could not have changed greatly be- 
tween his day and the day when the convention 
of 1776 sat. In fact, it has not changed in- 
credibly since that day. 

If I may say so without offence, Time appears 
to me to have dealt gently with this ancient 
capital of Virginia. Two wars have left her 
much as she was, as, indeed, they have left 
the Virginians much as they were when the 
Reverend Hugh Jones drew their pleasant pict- 
ure; pleasure-loving; chasing their horses five 
miles through pastures to ride them two miles 
on the road; easy-going till necessity arouses 
them, but, once aroused, like the Nemean lion. 

Into this capital came on May 6, 1776, one 
hundred and thirty of these "complete gentle- 
men," all with one mind and one motive: the 
preservation of American liberty. However 
they might have differed and wrangled and con- 
tended, here they were all at one. Nor had 



178 THE OLD DOMINION 

they assembled with any indefinite object. Not 
a man came but knew that it was a crisis in 
his life and fortunes. Three conventions had 
sat in the preceding year, the first on the 20th 
of March in old St. John's Church, Richmond, 
where Patrick Henry fired all hearts by his 
eloquent appeal for liberty or death. Though it 
had lasted but a week, it did its work well. The 
second, which met on the 24th of July, had put 
the colony in a posture of defence. 

On this day, May 6, the House of Burgesses 
held its last session and declared that the ancient 
Constitution of Virginia had been subverted by 
the King and Parliament of Great Britain. 
They thereupon disbanded and gave way to the 
great Convention, thus terminating Virginia's 
subjection to Great Britain. For the last year 
the Royal Governor had been a fugitive from 
the capital, and was now on board the warship 
William, fulminating proclamations against the 
people of Virginia as rebels, declaring martial 
law, and arming their runaway slaves, to whom 
he held out the reward of freedom. On Octo- 
ber 26, 1775, George Nicholas had "fired the 
first shot of the Revolution at one of Dunmore's 
tenders sent to destroy the town of Hamp- 
ton." Four months before, the battle of Great 
Bridge had been fought and Woodford had 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 179 

won a victory, and, on New Year's day, Dun- 
more had burnt Norfolk, Virginia's seaport, to 
the ground. 

War was already begun, though not yet gen- 
erally flagrant. Separation was imminent and 
Independence was in the air. 

Some persons appear to think that Jefferson 
sat down in Philadelphia after the 7th of June 
and wrote off the Declaration of Independence 
as one might dash off a letter. They little know 
the measure of Clio's march. The principles of 
that immortal paper had been debated possibly 
by every gentleman in Virginia, and by many 
outside of her borders. It had been the subject 
of discussion at every fireside and in every as- 
semblage for months, if not for years. And its 
substance had been proclaimed as early as June 
12 in that immortal paper, the Virginia Bill of 
Rights which has since been incorporated in the 
Constitution of every State of the Union. 

However this may have been, Richard Henry 
Lee, on the 20th of April, wrote from Phila- 
delphia, where he was representing Virginia in 
the General Congress, to Patrick Henry, urging 
him to propose to the convention about to 
assemble a separation from Great Britain. 

"Ages yet unborn," he says, "and millions 
existing at present may rue or bless that Assem- 



180 THE OLD DOMINION 

bly on which their happiness or misery will so 
eminently depend." (Grigsby, p. 8.) 

Those will remember who know the story of 
the Declaration, that Richard Henry Lee was 
the member of Congress who, in obedience to 
Virginia's Instructions, on the 7th day of June 
moved Congress to declare the Colonies Free 
and Independent States. And but that he was 
recalled to Virginia by the illness of his wife, it 
would probably have been his pen rather than 
Jefferson's which drafted the Declaration. 

Who were the members of the conventions 
who performed so notable a part in the drama 
that was just opening ? Simply the old Vir- 
ginians — planters and lawyers, plain country 
gentlemen — whose names were to be immortal- 
ized by their acts. 

in 

When the Virginia Convention of 1776 met 
there was but one subject for consideration — 
the preservation of liberty. Without any pre- 
liminary waste of time it at once settled down 
to business. 

Of other Conventions since that date we have 
the debates — the methods and processes by 
which the members arrived at their conclusions. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 181 

But not so as to this one. In the volume of its 
proceedings all we find are the results told in 
briefest minutes. And all related to the public 
weal. 

On the fifth day of their session the conven- 
tion directed that 1,300 men, consisting of 
minute men and militia, be immediately raised 
in the middle counties of Virginia, and formed 
into two distinct battalions, to be sent to the 
assistance of North Carolina. And on this 
same day a "representation from the committee 
of the County of Augusta," which embraced all 
Western Virginia and Kentucky, was presented 
to the convention, "setting forth the present 
unhappy situation of the country, and from the 
ministerial measures of vengeance now pursuing, 
representing the necessity of making the con- 
federacy of the United Colonies the most per- 
fect, independent and lasting, and of framing 
an equal, free and liberal government that may 
bear the test of all future ages." 

So we come to the great day of May 15, 1776. 

The session was the most momentous which 
had yet been held, for the real business of the 
day was a Declaration of Independence. 

Of what occurred during the debate we know 
little. We only know, indeed, that Edmund 
Pendleton, the President, drafted a resolution 



1 82 THE OLD DOMINION 

instructing the Virginia delegates in Congress to 
move that body to declare the colonies Free and 
Independent States; that Patrick Henry drafted 
another resolution to the same purpose, and that 
Meriwether Smith drafted a third; that Thomas 
Nelson, Jr., offered the resolution, said to have 
been that drafted by Pendleton, thus becoming 
the sponsor for it; that Patrick Henry seconded 
and advocated it, and that while there was some 
opposition to it from conservatives like Robert 
Carter Nicholas, it was on the final vote of the 
convention unanimously adopted. 

"They are," says Grigsby, "in every view the 
most important ever presented for the con- 
sideration of a public body . . . they constitute 
the first Declaration of Independence. " 

It bespeaks the greatness of the members of 
that convention that even when its far-reaching 
effect was recognized, no claim was set up by 
the mover of that resolution to any special 
honor. And not one historian has set forth the 
authorship as it was. The resolution passed 
into history — into Virginia's histories, for these 
were the only histories that deigned even to 
notice them, as Pendleton's resolution. But the 
real author of a resolution is not the man who 
writes it, but the man who offers it and carries 
it through. He it is who must stand or fall by it. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 183 

Here is the minute, from the Journal: "When 
Mr. President resumed the Chair, Mr. Cary 
reported that the Committee had under their 
consideration the state of the Colony and had 
come to the following Resolutions thereupon; 
which he read in his place, and afterwards de- 
livered in at the Clerk's table where the same 
were again twice read and unanimously agreed 
to; 112 members being present: 

"Forasmuch as all the endeavors of the 
United Colonies, by the most decent representa- 
tions and petitions to the King and Parliament 
of Great Britain, to restore peace and security 
to America under the British Government, and 
a reunion with that people upon just and liberal 
terms, instead of a redress of grievances, have 
produced from an imperious and vindictive ad- 
ministration increased insult, oppression and a 
vigorous attempt to effect our total destruction. 
By a late act all these colonies are declared to 
be in rebellion, and out of the protection of the 
British Crown, our properties subjected to 
confiscation, our people, when captured, com- 
pelled to join in the murder and plunder of 
their relations and countrymen, and all former 
rapine and oppression of Americans declared 
legal and just. Fleets and armies are raised, 
and the aid of foreign troops engaged to assist 



1 84 THE OLD DOMINION 

these destructive purposes. The King's repre- 
sentative in this Colony hath not only withheld 
all the powers of government from operating 
for our safety, but, having retired on board an 
armed ship, is carrying on a piratical and sav- 
age war against us, tempting our slaves by 
every artifice to resort to him and training and 
employing them against their masters. In this 
state of extreme danger, we have no alternative 
left but an abject submission to the will of these 
overbearing tyrants, or a total separation from 
the Crown and Government of Great Britain, 
uniting and exerting the strength of all America 
for defence, and forming alliances with foreign 
powers for commerce and aid in War: Where- 
fore, appealing to the Searcher of Hearts for 
the sincerity of former declarations, expressing 
our desire to preserve the connexion with that 
Nation, and that we are driven from that in- 
clination by their wicked councils, and the 
eternal laws of self-preservation; 

"Resolved unanimously, that the Delegates 
appointed to represent this Colony in General 
Congress be instructed to propose to that re- 
spectable body to declare the United Colonies 
free and independent States, absolved from all 
allegiance to, or dependence upon, the Crown 
or Parliament of Great Britain; and that they 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 185 

give the assent of this Colony to such declara- 
tion, and to whatever measures may be thought 
proper and necessary by the Congress for form- 
ing foreign alliances, and a confederation of the 
Colonies, at such time and in the manner, as 
to them shall seem best: Provided, that the 
power of forming government for, and the regu- 
lation of the internal concerns of each Colony 
be left to the respective Colonial legislatures. 

"Resolved unanimously, That a Committee 
be appointed to prepare a Declaration of 
Rights, and such a plan of government as will 
be most likely to maintain peace and order in 
this Colony, and secure substantial and equal 
liberty to the people. ,, 

Thus, the act of instruction became the act 
of the whole convention. And, becoming such, 
it was the first Declaration of Independence by 
a State on this continent. The hour had 
struck; a new star had risen in the firmament 
of Nations. 

The account Contained in the Virginia Gazette 
of May 17, shows the enthusiasm with which the 
passage of the resolution was hailed by the peo- 
ple of the old town of Williamsburg. The Brit- 
ish flag was immediately struck on the capitol of 
the colony where it had flown continuously since 
April, 1607, and " the Union flag of the American 



186 THE OLD DOMINION 

States" was run up on the capitol of Virginia, 
thus making Virginia the first State to fly the 
Union flag. The soldiery "were paraded in 
Waller's Grove before Brigadier-General Lewis, 
attended by the gentlemen of the Committee of 
Safety, the members of the General Conven- 
tion, the inhabitants of this City, etc. The 
resolutions being read aloud to the army, the 
following toasts were given, each of them 
accompanied by a discharge of the artillery 
and small arms, and the acclamation of all 
present: 

"i. The American Independent States. 

"2. The Grand Congress of the United 
States, and their respective legislatures. 

"3. General Washington, and victory to the 
American arms. 

"The evening," says the Virginia Gazette, 
"concluded with illuminations and other demon- 
strations of joy, every one seeming pleased that 
the domination of Great Britain was now at an 
end, so wickedly and tyrannically exercised for 
these twelve or thirteen years past, notwith- 
standing our repeated prayers and remon- 
strances for redress." 

The mover of the resolution for Independence, 
Thomas Nelson, Jr., was a delegate in Con- 
gress, and, having carried it through the con- 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 187 

vention, he set out immediately for Philadelphia 
with the resolution in his pocket. There all 
eyes were turned on Virginia, which was taking 
the lead now in the Revolution. 

On the 7th of June her delegate, Richard 
Henry Lee, in obedience to the resolution, 
offered in Congress a resolution in almost the 
words of his instruction. 

The story is known how it was debated 
through the following three or four weeks; 
how Lee returned to Virginia partly because of 
his wife's illness, but partly because of the 
urging of George Mason and others who wished 
him to help frame the Virginia constitution; how 
Jefferson was appointed on the committee to 
draft the Declaration of Independence, and how 
by the committee the drafting was assigned to 
him. It is known also how Benjamin Har- 
rison, as chairman of the Committee of the 
Whole, received and transmitted the Decla- 
ration to the Congress, whose president was 
John Hancock, now that Peyton Randolph was 

no more. 

To show the importance of this action of the 
Virginia convention at this time it is only neces- 
sary to recall that on the 15th of May, the very 
day when the convention adopted the resolution 
declaring for Independence, and ordered a new 



188 THE OLD DOMINION 

plan of government to be drafted, a resolution 
entered into by Congress for suppressing the ex- 
ercise of all powers derived from the Crown, 
had shown, as Mr. Jefferson states in his memoir, 
by the ferment into which it had thrown the mid- 
dle colonies (Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylva- 
nia, the Jerseys and New York) that the people 
of those colonies had not yet accommodated their 
minds to a separation from the mother coun- 
try. That some of them had expressly for- 
bidden their delegates to consent to such a 
declaration, and others had given no instruc- 
tions and consequently no powers to give such 
consent. 

This argument was employed by Wilson, 
Robert R. Livingston, Rutledge, Dickinson and 
others against the Virginia resolution which 
Richard Henry Lee moved in Congress on June 
7th. And even as late as the first of July, when 
in Committee of the Whole House, the con- 
sideration of the original motion made by the 
delegates of Virginia after being debated through 
the day was carried in the affirmative by the 
votes of New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massa- 
chusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maryland, 
Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia, South 
Carolina and Pennsylvania voted against it, the 
two members from Delaware who were present 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 189 

were divided, and the delegates from New York, 
though they declared themselves for it, were 
acting under instructions given them a twelve- 
month before, and asked leave to withdraw 
from the question. 

The determination of the question was then, 
on the request of Mr. Edward Rutledge of South 
Carolina, put off to the next day, as he stated 
his belief that his colleagues, though they dis- 
approved of the resolution, would join in it for 
the sake of unanimity. And on the second of 
July, the question whether the House would 
agree to the Virginia resolution was carried, 
South Carolina concurring in the vote, as did 
Pennsylvania and Delaware. On the same days 
the actual declaration, its matter and form, as 
Mr. Jefferson states, was taken up, but it was 
on the Fourth of July that it was decided, and 
was signed by every member present except Mr. 
Dickinson, though the delegates from New 
York did not sign until the fifteenth of July, 
authority not having been given them by their 
convention until the ninth, five days after the 
general signature. The convention of Pennsyl- 
vania, learning that it had been signed only by 
a majority of their delegates, named a new dele- 
gation on the 20th, leaving out Mr. Dickinson, 
and the entire delegation then signed. 



i 9 o THE OLD DOMINION 



IV 



I cannot do better in closing the discussion 
of this subject than to quote from a scholarly 
address delivered some little time back by a 
cultured Virginian.* 

"It may be of interest to relate the views of 
one well qualified to judge of events, and to 
whom both the choice of Washington to com- 
mand the armies of the country, and of Jefferson 
to draw the great Declaration were due. In a 
letter to Timothy Pickering, written August 6, 
1822, John Adams writes: 'You inquire why so 
young a man as Jefferson was placed at the head 
of the Committee for preparing a Declaration of 
Independence? answer, 'It was the Frankfort 
advice to place Virginia at the head of every- 
thing/ Mr. Richard Henry Lee might be gone 
to Virginia to visit his sick family for aught I 
know, but that was not the reason of Mr. 
Jefferson's appointment. There were three 
committees appointed at the same time. One 
for the Declaration of Independence, another 
for preparing Articles of Confederation, and 
another for preparing a treaty to be proposed 
to France. Mr. Lee was chosen for the Com- 

* Mr. Rosewell Page. 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 191 

mittee of Confederation, and it was thought 
convenient that the same person should be on 
both. Mr. Jefferson came into Congress in 
June, 1775, and brought with him a reputation 
for literature, science, and a happy talent for 
composition. Writings of his were handed 
about, remarkable for the felicity of expression. 
Though a silent member in Congress, he was 
so prompt, frank, explicit, and decisive upon 
committee and in conversation (not even Sam. 
Adams was more so) that he soon seized upon 
my heart; and upon this occasion I gave him 
my vote and did all in my power to procure 
votes of others. I think he had one more vote 
than any other and that placed him at the head 
of the committee. I had the next highest num- 
ber and that placed me second. The com- 
mittee met, discussed the subject, and then ap- 
pointed Mr. Jefferson and me to make a draft 
(I suppose because we were the first on the 
list). The sub-committee met, Jefferson pro- 
posed to me to make the draft. I said: 

'"I will not.' 

"'You should do it.' 

"'Oh no.' 

"'Why will you not ? You ought to do it/ 

"'I will not/ 

"'Why?' 



i 9 2 THE OLD DOMINION 

"'Reasons enough/ 

"'What can be your reasons ?' 

"'Reason first. You are a Virginian, and a 
Virginian ought to appear at the head of this 
business. Reason Second. I am obnoxious, 
suspected and unpopular. You are very much 
otherwise. Reason third; you can write ten 
times better than I can/ 

"'Well/ said Jefferson, 'if you are decided, 
I will do as well as I can/ 

"After saying that he did not make or suggest 
a single alteration, and adding that he did not 
remember that Franklin or Sherman criticised 
anything, the distinguished New Englander 
says: 'As you justly observed, there is not an 
idea in it but what had been hackneyed in Con- 
gress for two years before. The substance of 
it is contained in the Declaration of Rights and 
the violation of these rights in the Journals of 
Congress in 1774. Indeed, the essence of it 
is contained in a pamphlet voted and printed 
by the town of Boston before the first Congress 
met, composed by James Otis, I suppose in one 
of his lucid moments, and pruned and polished 
by Sam. Adams/ 

"The latter part of this letter recalls the say- 
ing attributed to the writer of it, relative to the 
elevation of his son to the Presidency for which 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 193 

he was naturally very desirous. As Jefferson, 
Madison, and Monroe were respectively elected 
over John Quincy, the elder Adams is alleged to 
have said, 'My son will stand no chance until the 
last Virginian is dead/ 

"Let us briefly sum up the results of the Vir- 
ginian movement, and what it accomplished. It 
gave Patrick Henry to arouse and stimulate the 
whole people of America. It gave George 
Washington, Lewis, Henry Lee, Daniel Morgan, 
George Rogers Clarke, and Thomas Nelson, 
Jr., to the army. It gave Thomas Nelson, Jr., 
to draw the instructions for Independence and 
to offer them to the Virginia Convention. It 
gave Peyton Randolph to preside over the first 
Congress. It gave Thomas Jefferson to write 
the Declaration of Independence after the mo- 
tion therefor had been made by Richard Henry 
Lee, who was also to be chairman of the com- 
mittee for preparing Articles of Confederation. 
It won and gave the Northwest Territory to the 
country. It gave the Virginia plan to the con- 
vention that formed the Constitution of the 
United States with George Washington, James 
Madison and Edmund Randolph to support it; 
for though Randolph refused to sign the Constitu- 
tion, he did as much as anybody to bring it to its 
state of perfection. It gave John Marshall to 



i 9 4 THE OLD DOMINION 

establish that Constitution upon a basis so im- 
pregnable that civil war could not disturb it. It 
gave four out of the first five presidents of the 
United States; not to speak of the gallant sons 
of Virginia who offered themselves for the pub- 
lic good, nor of the treasure which Virginia 
poured into the general fund which the limits 
of this paper will not permit me to detail. 

"The result of the Virginian movement may 
be summed up in the following language that 
has been well styled 'monumental/ written by 
one of the greatest of the Virginians and one 
well qualified to speak: Thomas JefFerson. 
These are his words, and my idea of what that 
movement made possible: 

"Equal and exact justice to all men, of what- 
ever state or persuasion, religious and political; 
peace, commerce, and honest friendship with 
all nations, entangling alliances with none; 
the support of the State Government in all 
their rights, as the most competent adminis- 
trations for our domestic concerns and the 
surest bulwark against Anti-republican tenden- 
cies, the preservation of the general govern- 
ment in its whole constitutional vigor as the 
sheet-anchor of our peace at home and our 
safety abroad; 1 a jealous care of the right of 
election by the people; a mild and safe correc- 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT 195 

tion of abuses, which are lopped by the sword 
of revolution where peaceable remedies are un- 
provided; absolute acquiescence in the decisions 
of the majority; the vital principle of Republics, 
from which there is no appeal but to force, the 
vital principle and immediate parent of despot- 
ism; a well disciplined militia, our best reliance 
in peace and for the first movements in war, 
till regulars may relieve them; the supremacy 
of the civil over the military authority; economy 
in the public expense that labor may be light 
burdened; the honest payment of our debts 
and the sacred preservation of the Public faith; 
encouragement of agriculture and of commerce 
as its hand-maid; the diffusion of information 
and arraignment of all abuses at the bar of 
public reason; freedom of religion, freedom of 
the press, and freedom of person under the 
protection of the habeas corpus, and trial by 
jurors impartially selected; these principles 
form the light constellation which has gone 
before us and guided our steps through an age 
of revolution and reformation!" 

Such in brief, was the part which the Old 
Dominion had in the creation of the Revolu- 
tionary movement. She inspired the movement, 
encouraged her sister colonies, supplied the 
statesmen who led the councils and the chief who 



i 9 6 THE OLD DOMINION 

led the Revolutionary armies to final victory. It 
was by no mere accident that George Washing- 
ton, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, George 
Mason, Edmund Pendleton, George Wythe, the 
Lees, the Harrisons, the Nelsons, the Randolphs, 
the Blands and other leaders of the Revolution- 
ary movement came from the shores of the rivers 
which poured into the Chesapeake. They were 
the product of the life established on those shores. 
Then, when Independence was achieved, she led 
the movement to establish a more permanent 
union by the adoption of the Constitution of the 
United States, to consummate which she sur- 
rendered her vast Northwest Territory which 
her sons had conquered. And, having effected 
this, it was under one of her sons that the great 
Louisiana Territory was secured, and under an- 
other that the loose bands of the Constitution 
were welded to make the whole homogeneous 
and effective. 

These and many more national benefits were 
the fruits of the civilization which had a footing 
first at Jamestown. But the chief and choicest 
fruit of all was the distinctive civilization which 
sprang up within her borders and took its char- 
acter from her secluded and uncommercial life. 

This life shed an inestimable influence on the 
whole country. The Virginia gentleman be- 



THE REVOLUTIONARY MOVEMENT i ,7 

came a synonym for lofty courtesy; the Virginia 
hospitality became noted the world over. 

The quality and temper of the life were shown 
to the world in men like Washington and 
Marshall and Madison, and later in men like 
Lee and Jackson. They were all men of genius; 
but more marked than even this genius was their 
character. 

This was the ripest fruit of the Virginia civil- 
ization, and the Virginians know that though 
these might have been equalled by few in genius, 
in character they were not exceptions, but only 
types of the Virginian. 



THOMAS JEFFERSON AND THE UNIVER- 
SITY OF VIRGINIA. 



" Our university: the last of my mortal cares and the last service 
I can render my country." — Thomas Jefferson. 



\jO stranger story of self-sacrifice and devo- 
■*■ ^ tion to a high ideal in the face of trials 
which to a lesser genius might have appeared in- 
surmountable, and of disappointments which 
to less courage must have proved fatal, has ever 
been written than that which recounts the de- 
votion of the last twenty years of the life of 
Thomas Jefferson to the establishment of a 
great University. 

Any proper account of the University of Vir- 
ginia must take into consideration the story of 
its establishment and the history of its work, 
since it realized the ideal of its great founder, 
Thomas Jefferson. 

After a life devoted largely to public service, 

in which had been crowded almost as many 

198 



THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 199 

services of world-benefit as ever fell to one man's 
lot, and in which he reaped as much of the re- 
ward of high office and public appreciation as 
almost any man has ever had, when Thomas 
Jefferson had reached the highest point in the 
continuous climb from which all the kingdoms 
of the world and the needs of them fell within 
his ken, he saw one great need of the American 
People— Enlightenment— and addressed himself 

to it. , , 

His far-reaching mind recognized that what 
was needed to carry through the plan which the 
fathers had formed for the good of the Nation 
was a comprehensive system of Education He 
had a vast and varied experience which ex- 
tended over this country and Europe and he 
was as familiar with the great classical institu- 
tions of the Old World as he was w.th his alma 
mater, William and Mary College. 

His principle was: "True knowledge and 
Freedom are indissolubly linked together. 

It appeared to him quite clearly that what 
the people stood most in need of was a system 
of education that should cover the whole field of 
human knowledge and embrace within the range 
of its benefactions every class. 

With a breadth of scope which ranged far be 
yond that of most of his contemporaries, he 



aoo THE OLD DOMINION 

aimed to build ever for the spacious future which 
he foresaw destined for his country. It was 
this comprehensive sweep of intellect that made 
him seize the opportunity to secure the vast terri- 
tory of Louisiana, which Napoleon, with a view 
to raising a rival power to England in the West- 
ern Hemisphere, offered him. Stickler for 
strict adherence to the Constitution as he was, 
when this supreme chance came, with all its 
possibilities for the future, he did not hesitate to 
seize it. That the Constitution contained no ex- 
plicit provision for such an emergency did not 
stagger him. But he met the situation by ask- 
ing for an amendment approving and ratifying 
his action. Thus it is, that we celebrated re- 
cently the addition to our national domain of a 
territory which not only contains a dozen States, 
but gave this country control of the great West 
and enabled this nation to realize Napoleon's 
design and dominate this continent. 

With this same spaciousness of design Jeffer- 
son proceeded to build his Institution of The 
Higher Learning. He would make it a Univer- 
sity in fact as well as in title. With a vision far 
in advance of most of his friends, he contem- 
plated a "system of general instruction, which 
would reach every description of our citizens 
from the richest to the poorest," on which this 



THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 201 

University should be founded. Such a system, 
he declared in 1818, "as it was the earliest, so it 
will be the latest of all the public concerns in 
which I shall permit myself to take an interest." 
His aim was to make his system broad enough 
for all. Only two years before his university was 
established he wrote his lieutenant, Joseph C. 
Cabell, who ably seconded him in his efforts, 
that were it necessary to give up either the pri- 
maries or the universities he would abandon the 
latter, "because it was better to have the whole 
people respectably enlightened than to have a 
few in a high state of science and the many in 
ignorance." 

As early as 1779 he introduced into the Gen- 
eral Assembly of the State of Virginia a bill for 
the more gradual diffusion of knowledge; he 
would bring the school-house within the reach 
of every man's door. His bill provided not only 
for the popular foundation of common schools, 
but for the free training of all free children, male 
and female, for three years in reading, writing, 
and arithmetic. This proposed admission of 
girls preceded by ten years, as Professor Herbert 
A. Adams has pointed out, the admission of girls 
to the common schools of Boston, thus placing 
Jefferson as the pioneer in this field of female 
education. 



202 THE OLD DOMINION 

Next above the common school, according to 
Jefferson's proposed plan, were to be the gram- 
mar or classical schools — "free schools" in the 
sense to which old Sir William Berkeley referred 
when he hoped there would be "no free schools 
in Virginia these three hundred years." Here 
Latin, Greek, English, Geography, and higher 
Mathematics were to be taught. Over all, ac- 
cording to his first plan, the College of William 
and Mary, his alma mater, was to have a gen- 
eral control. Thus, the classical academies, 
middle schools, or colleges, as Jefferson after- 
ward called them, would centre in the higher 
education, as did the common schools.* 

One of the motives which actuated him was, 
undoubtedly, that he felt that the Virginian 
theory of government was sounder than that 
promulgated at the North. A reason which 
influenced him was his objection to being what 
he called "a beggar for the crumbs which fell 
from the tables of the North." He offered as an 
argument the fact that many young men from the 

♦Jefferson's great scheme for introducing common departments 
into Virginia in connection with the higher education failed be- 
cause of insufficient legislation, which left the matter to the vote 
of the people of each district. It was not until 1796 that a law 
was passed which made it at all possible. And it was not until 
twenty years later that a general provision was made by the State 
for elementary education. 



THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 203 

South went to Princeton, it having been reported 
to him that one-half of the students of that insti- 
tution were Virginians. Education at that time, 
even the higher education, was under the spell of 
formalism. The principal colleges were subject 
to some Church whose teachings influenced the 
curriculum. It was Thomas Jefferson's idea to 
do away with this subordination — to destroy this 
cramping formalism and to emancipate the mind 
from every form of Church domination. At that 
time Princeton was a sectarian institution, as 
William and Mary, while no longer one, was at 
least under the influence of the Episcopal 
Church. Jefferson, however, as he boldly de- 
clared, had "sworn on the altar of the Most High 
God hostility to every form of tyranny over the 
human mind," and held that a great University 
should belong to no Church and be dominated 
by no sectarian Creed. 

Undoubtedly, one of the basic principles on 
which Jefferson proposed to establish his uni- 
versity was the principle of enlightened freedom 
— freedom of thought and freedom of action, as 
far as might be consonant with the welfare of 
the greatest number. And his love of freedom 
extended to that higher form — the freedom of 
the mind. It was his profound belief that if 
this principle could be established as the founda- 



2o 4 THE OLD DOMINION 

tion-stone of his institution, that institution would 
be a boon and a blessing to the entire country 
and to all generations. With this steadily in 
view, he undertook to found a university which 
should avail itself of the experience of the Past, 
and withal should not only subserve the ever- 
widening influence of the Present, but should 
lead in the development of the Future. 

The first step would appear to have been the 
founding of an academy in Virginia, modelled 
on the French Academy, through the efforts of 
a zealous young Frenchman, Quesney de Beaure- 
paire, to whom the idea had been suggested by 
John Page, of Rosewell, one of the scholarly Vir- 
ginians. It was this far-reaching scheme which 
gave, at least, its character to the university, when 
it had attained its full conception and completion 
in Jefferson's mind; for the plan of the academy, 
in part, was that of the later institution.* 

But preceding this came the influence on the 
youthful mind of Jefferson, while at William and 
Mary, of his old Professor of Mathematics, 

* How the conception grew in the founder's mind until it reached 
its full ripeness would in itself repay the academic student. The 
late Prof. Herbert B. Adams has given the account in his remark- 
able sketch of Thomas Jefferson and the University of Virginia. 

"If circumstances," says Professor Adams, "had favored 
this project [of an academy] it is probable that the University of 
Virginia would never have been founded." There would have 
been no need of it. The Academy of the United States, founded 



THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 205 

"the great Dr. Small." Mr. Adams, quoting 
Emerson, that "an institution is the lengthened 
shadow of one man," traces, step by step, the 
painful way in which Jefferson toiled up the 
laborious steep. 

First came his own conception, and then came 
its fertilizing through the French influence which 
at one time brought him so much criticism, but 
which proved so broadening in the end. 

The plan, however, of linking his new uni- 
versity to his old alma mater passed away as 
Jefferson's idea expanded. William and Mary 
College was by tradition closely associated with 
an Established Church, and an Established 
Church had become very unpopular in Virginia. 
Indeed, the old Church had been disestablished 
by churchmen, one of the leaders in the move- 
ment being Jefferson himself. By the charter 
of the old college a certain association with the 
Episcopal Church still existed. And Jefferson did 
not propose to have any such influence in his plan. 

As early as 1794, Jefferson, working in the 

at Richmond, would have become the centre of higher education, 
not only for Virginia, but for the whole South and possibly for a 
large part of the North. 

Jefferson's proposition for the modification of the current cur- 
riculum of William and Mary College in 1776 represents, says 
Dr. Adams, "the first current of modern ideas" which began in 
1779, at length, "to flow into American academic life." 



206 THE OLD DOMINION 

direction of a great university, tried to get the 
Virginia Legislature to make provision for the 
transfer to Virginia of the faculty of the College 
of Geneva, who had expressed their willingness 
to come. It was, however, too large a scheme 
for Virginia; and then he undertook to connect 
Washington with the project of bringing over 
the faculty of the Swiss College, a daring project 
which Washington overthrew with a few sen- 
tences packed with that common sense which 
was his characteristic. He showed the disad- 
vantage of transplanting an entire faculty rather 
than the best men from a number of institutions, 
and the importance of creating an American 
spirit for the American institution, rather than 
of taking over a foreign spirit. 

As a part of this general plan Jefferson, in 1783, 
organized the Albemarle Academy in his own 
county, and here at once his breadth manifested 
itself in his efforts to secure the services of some 
learned Scotchman as principal. 

By the beginning of the new century Jeffer- 
son had got well along with his outline for a 
university and in his correspondence with Dr. 
Joseph Priestly he disclosed it and begged the 
assistance of that eminent and exiled scholar.* 

* He further induced M. Dupont de Nemours, who visited him, 
to write a treatise on national education in the United States, par- 



THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 207 

The project for an academy in Albemarle 
County, though the academy was chartered by 
the Legislature in 1803, "remained on paper 
only," as Mr. Adams shows, until after Mr. 
Jefferson's election to the Board of Trustees, 
March 23, 1814. Says Mr. Adams, "From 
that election dates the beginning of the develop- 
ment process of the Albemarle Academy into 
the University of Virginia." It is related that 
the trustees of this academy were in session dis- 
cussing the possibility of making it a reality 
when Mr. Jefferson happened to ride by. He 
was called in and consulted. On which he de- 
clared that though they had not been able to 
make an academy succeed they might establish 
a college. And before he left the room he had 
subscribed $1,000 to the plan, and under his 
inspiring example $8,000 had been subscribed. 
Thus, this academy was merged into Central 

ticularly on a university of the higher learning in Virginia; a treatise 
which, relating to a broad system, beginning with the primary 
schools and embracing the intermediate schools, concluded with 
a grand university of four schools which should make that 
city the educational as well as the political centre of the United 
States. 

"This treatise," says Professor Adams, "probably gave both 
sanction and emphasis to Jefferson's idea of a great State uni- 
versity," and to it he, with Professor Minor, attributed a consider- 
able share of Jefferson's idea of separate schools, to which, as the 
first establishment of a true university system in the country, much 
of the prestige of the University of Virginia is due. 



2o8 THE OLD DOMINION 

College, "in the very name of which," as Mr. 
Adams suggests, "lurked the idea of the central- 
ization of the higher education." With this 
small step Thomas Jefferson began the first 
university in the country. It was this great de- 
velopment, founded upon only an idea which, 
according to Mr. Adams, proves the extraor- 
dinary ability of Thomas Jefferson. 

In 1806, Mr. Joseph C. Cabell, a cultured 
young Virginian, returned from abroad, and 
he and Jefferson met, In 1807 Jefferson wrote 
him not to waste his energies in trying to patch 
up a failing and decaying institution, but to 
employ them in founding a new university 
worthy of the first State in the Union. At his 
instance the scholarly young Virginian entered 
the Virginia Assembly, and from this time, as 
Jefferson's able lieutenant, devoted his life to 
building up the University of Virginia. 

On the 14th of February, 18 16, the efforts 
of Jefferson and his lieutenant were crowned 
with success to the extent of getting from the 
Legislature an act to merge the Albemarle 
Academy into Central College. Under this act 
the Governor of the Commonwealth was to be 
the patron, or president, with power to appoint 
a board of six visitors to govern the institution, 
and this is substantially the form of government 



THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 209 

under which the university has existed to the 
present time. The story runs that the spot 
first selected by Jefferson for his institution was 
owned by a man who was so hostile to him po- 
litically that he refused to sell to him at any 
price, and the present site of the university was 
then selected. 

The first Board of Visitors to the new college 
were Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James 
Monroe, Joseph C. Cabell, David Watson, and 
J. H. Cocke. The plan for the new college 
was drawn by Jefferson and the corner-stone 
was laid October 6, 18 17, in the presence of 
James Monroe, then President of the United 
States, and of Thomas Jefferson and James 
Madison, ex-Presidents. Thus, three Presidents 
of the United States presided at its birth. The 
only endowment for the institution was the 
money which had been received from the sale 
of the two glebes of the two parishes of St. Ann 
and Fredericksville, in Albemarle County, the 
small subscription already mentioned, and the 
devotion of Thomas Jefferson and his friends 
to the idea of higher education. But devotion 
to a high ideal is a priceless endowment. 

Ten days after the charter of Central College 
was created Mercer's bill was passed within 
two hours of being introduced, calling for a 



210 THE OLD DOMINION 

digest of a system of general education which 
should embrace in it a university to be called 
the University of Virginia, and such additional 
colleges and schools as should diffuse education 
throughout the commonwealth. The feeling in 
favor of the higher education was beginning to 
crystallize. 

The first meeting of the Board of Visitors of 
the new Central College took place on May 5, 
1 8 1 7. On this board, as stated, were Mr. Jeffer- 
son, Mr. Madison, and Mr. Monroe. 

As the plan, however, unfolded itself by which 
the Central College was to be elevated into a 
real university, a new difficulty arose in the 
claims of the western district of the State to 
have the university established beyond the Blue 
Ridge in the Valley of Virginia, Staunton and 
Lexington each claiming the honor of becom- 
ing its seat. 

By this time the spirit in which Jefferson 
labored had spread widely. Governor Nicholas 
as president of Central College, inspired with 
Jefferson's broad idea, had addressed to a num- 
ber of men throughout the country a letter ask- 
ing their views upon the subject of a great uni- 
versity. Among those whom he consulted were 
Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, at that time 
Secretary of State, Dr. Thomas Cooper, of 



THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 211 

Philadelphia, Dr. Augustin Smith, President 
of William and Mary College, and Dr. Timothy 
Dwight, President of Yale. 

It was in Mr. Jefferson's reply, which set 
forth his views with that breadth which char- 
acterized all his views whenever they related to 
the subject of education, that he expressed his 
opinion as to the proper construction of a college 
building, outlining the "village form" rather 
than one immense building. This broad plan he 
afterward carried out when he built the univer- 
sity, and to it we owe what is possibly the most 
beautiful range of academic structures in the 
country, the first that was laid out from the 
beginning in one harmonious whole. 

For years the struggle went on. Opposi- 
tion, beaten in one session, again and again 
revived and ranged itself around the desire to 
have the institution, if established at all, placed 
beyond the mountains; but finally, Jefferson's 
persistence and Cabell's diplomacy prevailed. 

On the 21st of February, 1819, the bill was 
finally passed by the Legislature, in which were 
provisions relating to a system of primary 
schools. Provision was made for the estab- 
lishment of the University of Virginia with an 
annual appropriation of $15,000. And this small 
sum was the annual appropriation made for the 



212 THE OLD DOMINION 

university for over sixty years. It was in pur- 
suance of this bill that the commission of emi- 
nent men, appointed thereunder to decide where 
the university should be placed, met on August 
I, 1818, at Mountain Top, in Rockfish Gap, 
through which the main road to the West winds 
over the Blue Ridge. Staunton, Lexington, and 
Central College, at Charlottesville, were rivals 
for the honor. Mr. Jefferson, who was unani- 
mously chosen president of the Board, testified 
at once his superiority of intellect by being able 
to show the superior claims of the position of 
Central College, at Charlottesville. This he 
did by producing a long list of octogenarians 
living in that region and by presenting maps, 
which he had prepared in advance, proving that, 
of all the claimants, Central College was nearest 
the centre of the State. 

The same arguments which are now urged 
in favor of urban institutions as against rural 
institutions were advanced on this occasion, but 
Mr. Jefferson, being warmly seconded by Mr. 
Madison, the vote was carried overwhelmingly 
in favor of the place which was finally selected. 

Thus, the University of Virginia is seated on 
the sunny slopes of Albemarle, facing the little 
mountain on which Thomas Jefferson had 
perched his home, from which, later on, he used 



THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 213 

to watch with a telescope his beautiful buildings 
rising day by day. 

The fight, however, was only getting under 
way, and the contest was more bitter at the next 
session of the Legislature than ever before. 
Some idea of the tension of feeling may be 
gleaned from the fact that when the bill came 
up, Cabell, as he wrote Jefferson afterward, left 
the House of Delegates "to avoid the shock of 
feeling" which he "would have been compelled 
to sustain." "The scene," when Staunton 
withdrew her claims, he declares, "was truly 
affecting. A great part of the house was in 
tears." However this was, on the 25th of Janu- 
ary, 1 8 19, the bill was passed, chartering, on 
Mr. Jefferson's lines, the University of Virginia, 
to be established on the site of that Central Col- 
lege which he had labored so long to establish, 
and, although it was over six years before the 
University of Virginia was opened, and these 
six years were to be filled with more strenuous 
labor than the six years that had already passed, 
it was true, as Cabell wrote, that they had 
"gotten possession of the ground" and it would 
"never be taken from them." 

As soon as this victory had been gained, 
Jefferson began to plan at once how to build 
his university and how to render it worthy of 



2i 4 THE OLD DOMINION 

the name. The motto which he chose by which 
to guide his action in the selection of his pro- 
fessors was, "Detur digniori," and he set to 
work not only to secure the best professors 
possible in this country, but planned to send 
Mr. Cabell to Europe to secure a corps of pro- 
fessors there — a mission which was actually 
performed later by Mr. F. W. Gilmer.* 

Jefferson's first estimate of what would be 
needed for the buildings, exclusive of the library, 
was $162,364, and every dollar counted, for 
every dollar had to be fought for. But his broad 
plans soon outstripped his estimate and stag- 
gered even faithful coadjutors, like Cabell, who 
wrote to him and implored him to keep within 
bounds and avoid extravagance. Jefferson, 
however, was building for Posterity. The great 
object of his aim from the beginning was, he 
declared, to make the establishment the most 
eminent in the United States in order to draw 
to it the youth of every State. "If we cannot 

*The first Board of Visitors was composed of Thomas Jeffer- 
son, Gen. James Breckenridge, Gen. Robert B. Taylor, John H. 
Cocke, and Joseph C. Cabell, and their first session was held on 
March 29, 1819, from which meeting dates the real beginning of 
the University of Virginia. It was decided that all the funds 
which they had secured — less than $60,000 — should be devoted 
first to buildings, and Dr. Thomas Cooper of Philadelphia, was 
elected Professor of Chemistry, Mineralogy, Natural Philosophy 
and Professor of Law. 



THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 215 

get the money now we will at another or another 
trial." And when he had completed his work 
he had largely overstepped his estimates.* 

Happy it was for Virginia and the South, if 
not for the whole country, that Jefferson's plans 
were so spacious. Not only his beloved cre- 
ation, but every great college throughout the 
land has profited by the noble example he set 
them, not merely in the forms of architecture, 
but in the higher forms of his academic organi- 
zation and the spirit of scholarship which he 
infused into its life. 

Indeed, as paradoxical as it may appear, it 
seems an unquestionable fact that the upbuild- 
ing of every new educational institution tends 
to strengthen rather than to weaken all other 
similar institutions within the range of its in- 
fluence. The spirit of enlightenment is the at- 
mosphere in which educational institutions have 
their being. 

The very plan on which Jefferson had projected 

*Yet, even so, the cost of that beautiful pile is curiously small 
compared with the results that have flowed from it. The proctor's 
report for 1877 shows that up to 1832 the expenditure had been 
only $320,728.29, while up to 1875 this with the additions, aggre- 
gated but $548,172.65. Yet so strong was the opposition even to 
this moderate outlay that Jefferson was charged by some writer 
in the press with having deliberately deluded the people as to the 
cost of the buildings— a charge which he warmly resented and re- 
pudiated. 



216 THE OLD DOMINION 

his structures exhibits the breadth of his idea. 
Eschewing all recent forms of architecture, he 
had from the first, as if to link his conception 
to the historic forms of the Old World, chosen 
for his academic buildings the pure classical 
models of ancient Greece and Rome. At the 
top of a fine quadrangle, open to the south, he 
placed a beautiful structure, modelled after that 
noblest of the relics of ancient Rome, the Pan- 
theon. On either hand, stretching to the south- 
ward, lie long lines of buildings connected by 
long colonnades, broken at intervals by the fa- 
cades of the professors' houses and modelled 
on such examples of ancient architecture as the 
baths of Diocletian and Caracalla, the Temple 
of Fortuna Virilis, and the Theatre of Mar- 
cellus; while on the slopes below and parallel 
to the colonnades on the lawn extend similar 
ranges of pavilions and colonnades. These 
colonnades are the cloistered rooms of the 
students, while the houses are the residences of 
the professors. They are taken, as their designer 
states, from Palladio's great work on Architec- 
ture. The whole system forms possibly the most 
beautiful architectural achievement yet pro- 
duced in this country. Back of these houses, 
enclosed by curious serpentine walls of the thick- 
ness of a single brick, lie gardens some of which 



THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 217 

the writer recalls as among the most charming 
tangles he has ever seen. If the Higher Philos- 
ophy has a soul which demands a fitting abode 
this abode would be here. If any pile of build- 
ings in the world is fitted by its beauty to be the 
abode of the Higher Philosophy, it is this. 

The final battle was fought when, with a view 
to defeating Jefferson's plans, the effort was 
made to move William and Mary College to 
Richmond; but the battle was won. Before its 
decision, however, Jefferson had to yield to some 
extent to the religious sentiment, which, crystal- 
lizing on the fact that Dr. Cooper, a Unitarian, 
had been selected as the first professor, made 
the success of his plan doubtful. He wrote sug- 
gesting that religious denominations might es- 
tablish their own theological seminaries just 
outside the limits of the university, and thus 
receive the benefits of association with the in- 
stitution. This, said Cabell, contributed to win 
him votes and carry the day. However this may 
be, though for long the Church looked with cold 
eyes on the institution which stood for Free- 
dom of thought in every field, the religious life 
is as marked at the institution which Jefferson 
founded as at any secular institution in the land. 

Jefferson, himself, provided rooms for re- 
ligious exercises and arranged for the services 



218 THE OLD DOMINION 

of a chaplain. And ever since that time a chap- 
lain of first one denomination, and then an- 
other, has been in attendance, his term being 
limited to two years. Among these have been 
such eminent men as the late Rt. Rev. Thomas 
U. Dudley, Rev. Dr. John S. Lindsay, and the 
Rev. Dr. John A. Broaddus. The attendance 
of the students, while not compulsory either at 
chapel or at church, is, perhaps, quite equal to 
that in any institution where such attendance is 
compulsory. 

ii 

Such, in brief, is the history of the building 
of the first true University in this country. But 
those who see the charming architectural pile 
which, through Thomas Jefferson's genius, final- 
ly rose in all its harmonious beauty, and who 
know the wonderful intellectual success which 
the university has attained, can get little idea 
of the immense expenditure of labor and sac- 
rifice it cost, unless they know its full history. 
That achievement was the result of a labor 
little less than Herculean. For at least fifty 
years Jefferson had the project in his brain; and 
as we have seen, for at least twenty years he gave 
to its fulfilment every energy which he possessed. 
Every resource that he could summon was called 



THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 219 

forth. Often he appeared on the point of defeat, 
but he never despaired. His able and devoted 
lieutenant, Joseph C. Cabell, happily had caught 
the spirit which inspired him, and in season 
and out of season, seconded his efforts. Yet 
often he would have given up, but for Jefferson's 
divine enthusiasm. In 1821, when Cabell, 
broken and worn with his efforts to help Jeffer- 
son carry through his project of a great univer- 
sity, announced his decision to retire from the 
Virginia Legislature and give up the struggle, 
Jefferson wrote him a pathetic letter urging him 
to hold on and declaring his resolution to " die in 
the last ditch." "Health, time, labor," he de- 
manded, "on what in the single life which 
Nature has given us can these be better be- 
stowed than on this immortal boon to our 
country ? The exertions and mortifications are 
temporary; the benefits eternal. ... If any 
member of our College of Visitors could justi- 
fiably withdraw from this sacred duty, it would 
be myself, who ' quadragentis stipendiis jamdu- 
dum peractis; have neither vigor of body nor 
mind left to keep the field, but I will die in the 
last ditch." It is gratifying to know that Cabell 
did continue with him in these "holy labors, 
and the institution he had done so much to es- 
tablish was, in succession to Jefferson, Madison, 



220 THE OLD DOMINION 

and Monroe, served by him as Rector until 

1856. 

So great was the opposition to Jefferson's far- 
reaching plan that, as we have seen, it required 
all his enthusiasm and persistence to carry it 
through. But Jefferson, like most reformers, 
looked to posterity for his reward. " I have been 
sensible," he wrote his chief lieutenant Cabell, 
"that while I was endeavoring to render our 
country the greatest of all services, I was dis- 
charging the odious duty of a physician pouring 
medicine down the throat of a patient insensible 
of needing it. I am so sure of the approbation 
of posterity and the inestimable effects we shall 
have produced in the elevation of our country 
by what we have done, that I cannot repent of 
the part I have borne in co-operation with my 
colleagues. " 

It was this long struggle, ending finally in 
supreme success in the establishment of a great 
University, combined with academic taste in 
such perfection that it is almost as though a 
dream of ancient Greece had crystallized and 
taken form upon that Virginia hill-top, which 
justified Thomas Jefferson in his order to carve 
on his tomb that he was the "Father of the 
University of Virginia." 

But it was not only "the shell" that the old 



THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 221 

philosopher was undertaking to lay the founda- 
tion of in a broad and lasting manner. His 
conception was to breathe into this body a soul 
worthy of this beautiful tenement. His design 
was no less lofty than to make the institution 
"the most eminent in the country" for scholar- 
ship and intellectual work, and with this in view 
he had long been preparing the way to secure 
the most eminent professors to be found. For 
that purpose he used his great prestige and sent 
to Europe and there engaged Professors George 
Long, Blatterman, Thomas Hewitt Key, Charles 
Bonnycastle, Robley Dunglison, and John P. 
Emmet. By this time it is probable that he 
had been in correspondence with every body of 
distinguished educators in Europe.* 

On March 7, 1825, the university opened 

*This importation of professors from old England appears to 
have given some offence in New England, and the Connecticut 
Journal and the Boston Courier declared that no American could 
read the account "without indignation," when "Mr. Gilmer could 
have discharged his duties with half the trouble and expense by a 
short trip to New England." On which the Philadelphia Gazette 
observed, "or we may be permitted to add, by a still shorter trip 
to Philadelphia. . . . This sending a commissioner to Europe 
to engage professors for a new university is, we think, one of the 
greatest insults the American people have received." On the other 
hand, the New York American applauded Jefferson's breadth of 
view. For all this clamor Jefferson, sustained by the loftiness of 
his ideal, calmly pursued his course, preparing for posterity and 
looking to posterity for his reward. 



222 THE OLD DOMINION 

with five professors and sixty-eight students, of 
the average age of nineteen years. By the end 
of the year there were seven professors and one 
hundred and twenty-three students and the 
university was under way. 

The institution thus started on such broad 
and lofty lines soon began to justify the hopes 
of its parent and those who had labored so 
faithfully with him. His high conception to 
bring it a faculty and establish a standard which 
should at once give it a place among the univer- 
sities was realized. And although it went 
through the troublous period incident to the early 
years of most institutions of learning, its fame 
spread abroad. 

From the first it took high rank. It was 
promptly recognized as a real University. For 
it was laid on broad foundations as a University, 
not as a mere college. And as a University — not 
large, and certainly not wealthy, for it is modest 
in size and poor in means — it has since that time 
held its course by virtue simply of its high ideals 
and sound standards, making its impress on the 
scholastic life of the nation, second to none in 
its scope and work and equalled only by the 
greatest. How it has fulfilled its mission is 
known by all scholars, and, in some sort, by the 
outside world; but is truly known only by its 



THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 223 

sons who have been the beneficiaries of its nour- 
ishing care and have caught, often unknown to 
themselves, something of its illuminating spirit. 

Students were drawn there from all over the 
country, though mainly, as Jefferson had fore- 
told, from the South and West, and there is not 
a State in that section which has not felt in 
every profession the vivifying effects of its teach- 
ings. Bench and Bar, Pulpit and Medical 
Faculty have all been uplifted by the high stand- 
ard set in the University of Virginia. Here 
Poe drew his inspiration for those immortal 
works which have made him the first poet and 
first story-writer of America. And here many 
less noted, but not less worthy sons have found 
the equipment with which they have served their 
age and country. 

From the first it began to fulfil its founder's 
high ideal: "To form the statesmen, legislators, 
and judges, on whom public prosperity and indi- 
vidual happiness are so much to depend; to ex- 
pound the principles and structures of govern- 
ment, the laws which regulate the intercourse of 
nations, those formed municipally for our own 
government, and a sound spirit of legislation, 
which, banishing all unnecessary restraint on 
individual action, shall leave us free to do what- 
ever does not violate the individual rights of 



224 THE OLD DOMINION 

another; to harmonize and promote the inter- 
ests of agriculture, manufactures, and com- 
merce, and by well-informed views of public 
economy to give a free scope to the public in- 
dustry; to develop the reasoning faculties of our 
youth, enlarge their minds, cultivate their 
morals, and instil into them the principles of 
virtue and order; to enlighten them with math- 
ematical and physical sciences which advance 
the arts and administer to the health, the sub- 
sistence, and the comforts of human life; and 
generally to form them to habits of reflection 
and correct action, rendering them examples of 
virtue to others and of happiness within them- 
selves." Truly this was no mean ideal. 

Now that the university was a reality, one of 
the chief questions which occupied its founder 
was the practical concern of governing such a 
body of young men as would be thrown together. 
The principle was dear to his heart, "That gov- 
ernment is best which governs least." Rejecting 
the time-honored plan of rigid laws enforced by 
proctors and masters, with a high faith in the 
virtue of youth, Mr. Jefferson proposed to gov- 
ern the students by appealing to "their reason, 
their hopes, and their generous feelings." And 
therein lay one of the secrets of his success, and, 
no less, of the success of the Institution. 



THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 225 

The distinctive features of the University of 
Virginia are the independence of its schools; 
its elective system, by which every student may 
attend the school of his choice; the conferring of 
degrees in the individual schools; its allowing can- 
didates to stand examination for degrees without 
reference to time of residence; the bestowal of de- 
grees only after the attainment of a high degree 
of excellence shown in written examinations of 
great strictness; the method of instruction by lec- 
tures and oral examinations as well as by text- 
books; the requirement brought over by Long 
and Key from Cambridge University, of written 
examinations for all honors. But even more 
distinctive, if possible, than these is the absence 
of all sectarian influence and control; and finally, 
that system of discipline which more than any 
other one thing has distinguished the university, 
known as the " Honor system." In the develop- 
ment of the institution this principle has taken 
a commanding place as the fruit and product 
of the high conception in which the institution 
was founded, and it has always been one of its 
most admirable and distinctive teachings. It 
is an appeal to the sense of honor, truth, and 
manhood in youth. Founded upon the prin- 
ciple of the recognition of honor among gentle- 
men, it throws them frankly upon their honor, 



226 THE OLD DOMINION 

and thus fosters and establishes it in them. It 
is impossible to give too much importance to 
this feature. It so permeates the life of the in- 
stitution that no student can enter its classic pre- 
cincts and not feel it sensibly. It stamps itself 
on his mind with a force which can never be 
forgotten, follows him through life and remains 
one of the master forces of his whole career. 
Its effects are discernible throughout the whole 
South, and other institutions are following an 
example so fruitful of good. This good also 
the institution owes to Mr. Jefferson. 

It should not be imagined that this system 
reached its full maturity in a season. It is an 
error to suppose that the Honor system can be 
"adopted," or even founded, in a session. The 
system had its roots deep in the essential virtues 
of the gentle youth to whom Mr. Jefferson ap- 
pealed; yet its growth was slow. At first, free- 
dom was debauched and became license, and it 
was not until a great tragedy flared its fierce light 
into their eyes that the student body sobered to 
a high conception of the nobleness of the trust 
confided to them. The novelty of the situation 
was such, when the Honor system was first in- 
troduced, that the young men, habituated to a 
system of espionage, began to take advantage 
of the freedom allowed them and were soon at 



THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 227 

such odds with the professors that the whole 
faculty, brought together with so much pains 
by Mr. Jefferson, resigned in a body. In this 
exigency Mr. Jefferson was called in and the 
faculty and students were requested to meet the 
Board of Visitors. An account of the meeting was 
written long afterward by one of the students 
present on the occasion. The meeting took place 
in one of the old lecture halls, and Mr. Jefferson 
arose and addressed the students. He was, 
however, so affected by the apparent failure of 
one of his most cherished ideas that he burst 
into tears. Instantly the whole body of students, 
who had been guilty of the acts which occasioned 
the trouble, arose and, rushing forward, made a 
full confession of the part they had taken. The 
ringleaders were expelled, among them being a 
near relative of Mr. Jefferson, on whom he 
poured the vials of his wrath and visited the ex- 
treme penalty. The others were forgiven. Even 
then, however, the trouble was not wholly eradi- 
cated. The students were at first unable to 
realize the high ideal set for them. And a num- 
ber of petty rules caused, until remedied, much 
friction. A military company formed by the 
students began to interfere so much with scho- 
lastic duties that the arms were taken from them. 
This gave rise to so much discontent that annu- 



228 THE OLD DOMINION 

ally the disbandment was commemorated by a 
celebration which was accompanied by much 
boisterousness. Finally, in 1842, when the con- 
duct of certain of the students reached the point 
of carousal, one of the professors seized two of 
the students, who wore masks, and one of them 
shot him. This tragic act put an end forever to 
the unseemly license which had sprung from Mr. 
Jefferson's lofty conception, and since that time 
the institution he founded has approached more 
and more, as its traditions have become estab- 
lished, his noble ideal. 

Its original eight schools have increased un- 
til now it has twenty-three, of which its law 
school has three classes and its medical school 
six. 

Its one hundred and twenty-three students 
have increased steadily until it has eight hun- 
dred on its rolls, representing thirty-six States 
and several foreign countries. But it is not by 
the number of its students that its usefulness is 
to be measured. Its true gauge is the work it is 
doing, the high standard of its scholarship, and, 
above all, its high aim to make men. 

"Every great college," said Hamilton W. 
Mabie, in a thoughtful and charming paper on 
the University of Virginia, "has a background 
which must be taken into account in any en- 



THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 229 

deavor to understand its history or to enter 
into its spirit. A college is a visible embodi- 
ment of certain invisible influences, which are 
as much a part of its educational equipment as 
its libraries, laboratories, teachers, and course 
of study. These constitute its larger and deeper, 
if less obvious life; the life which searches, in- 
spires, and often recreates the spirit of the sensi- 
tive student." And he observes, as the writer 
thinks truly, that "of no institution of the higher 
learning is this truer than of the University of 
Virginia — an institution of original organization 
and methods, with traditions and convictions 
which give it a place by itself in the educational 
history of the country. " 

On the outbreak of the Civil War, of the sons 
of the university, about twenty-three hundred 
entered the army; and not less than three hun- 
dred and fifty fell in battle. Of the students 
who were then at the university almost the en- 
tire body enlisted. It was estimated that even 
twenty years ago over one thousand alumni had 
engaged in educational work, and in 1896 over 
two hundred of her sons were professors in uni- 
versities and colleges — a noble tribute, not only 
to her scholarship, but to that earnestness which 
is so distinguishing a characteristic of the uni- 
versity life. 



230 THE OLD DOMINION 

Thus, it happens that the University of Vir- 
ginia, with its limited number of students, has in 
the past possibly excelled in scholastic results any 
other similar institution in the country. She has 
had a larger representation in Congress than any 
other ; she has a larger representation on the bench ; 
and she has had a larger representation in the medi- 
cal departments of both the army and navy. All 
this result has been accomplished on an income 
less than that of many second-rate colleges.* 

Through the years, notwithstanding her want 
of means, this university, which sprang in her 
beauty from Jefferson's teeming brain, has con- 
tinued to perform the work which he laid out 
for her and to follow the course which he marked 
down for her to follow, with her eye single to 
two great principles — the highest standard of 
scholarship and the highest standard of honor. 
Through all discouragements and in the face 
of all difficulties, she has been true to [his ideal, 
which has been happily expressed in the motto 
chosen for her by a later rector, Mr. Armistead 
C. Gordon, "Ye shall know the truth and the 
truth shall make you free." 

*Her total revenue for the year 1899-1900, including tuition 
fees from the students, based on an estimate of five hundred and 
fifty students, was only $128,892, from which had to come the 
interest on the bonded debt, while the incomes of Yale, Harvard 
and Princeton are many times this amount. 



THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 231 

Lying on the sunny slopes of the Albemarle 
hills, with her classical arcades stretching away 
southward, bathed in the Virginia sunshine, she 
has from the first taught her sons the nobility of 
truth and hereby has pointed them to freedom. 
Neither professor nor student can long breathe 
that atmosphere and remain untrue. 

Always cramped in her resources, often 
strained to the utmost to carry on her work; she 
has yet carried it on through the self-denial of 
her professors. And there has been this com- 
pensation, that, as has been well said by Hamil- 
ton W. Mabie: "Simplicity is still the note of 
student-life in Virginia, and simplicity is always 
a note of the highest culture." 

It is the most Republican institution the writer 
has ever known. Here, in this age of money- 
loving, money-getting, and money-spending, 
money counts for nothing. Here Jew and Gen- 
tile, gentle and simple, rich and poor, stand on 
the same platform: that "all men are created 
equal." The only aristocracy is one of intel- 
lect, manliness, and loftiness of purpose. And 
the wealth of Croesus could not save a man a 
moment if he fell below the high standard set 
for gentlemen. This is why there is that in 
the life of the University of Virginia which 
stamps its impress on the life of her sons in a 



232 THE OLD DOMINION 

way which can never be wholly erased. It is 
not Scholarship; it is not even always the ability 
to appreciate Scholarship; but it is that which 
comes from having in youth had a glimpse of 
the Truth and having had her breathe the breath 
of freedom into the nostrils that is never again 
wholly lost. More than the knowledge ac- 
quired, far more than the material advantage 
derived, one alumnus wishes to record that the 
greatest benefit he secured from his life at the 
University of Virginia was some appreciation of 
her ideals. 

Times and conditions even in scholastic life 
have changed since Thomas Jefferson, on the 
tentative election of William Wirt to the presi- 
dency of the university, wrote with his own hand 
on the page of her records a protest against in- 
stituting such an office. Owing to these changes, 
after much thought, those charged with the re- 
sponsibility have deemed it for the best interests 
of the institution to establish this office. 

The great need at present is the means to 
carry on the work of the institution. A dis- 
astrous fire a few years ago destroyed its valuable 
library, and to rebuild it was necessary to mort- 
gage heavily its property. "To widen its sphere 
of usefulness and to meet properly the educa- 
tional demands of the age, a considerable sum 



THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 233 

is required." It has long outgrown the narrow 
limits within which it is confined by its meagre 
income.* 

The same local prejudices which so long 
operated to prevent its establishment have pre- 
vailed, and what it has accomplished has been 
with hopelessly meagre resources. Its best 
work has been done by men who have made 
great sacrifices to do it. 

Meanwhile, however cramped her resources, 
she is performing a great work — upholding the 
standard of high scholarship and right living. 

Looking back with pride to her noble past 

♦Its revenue from all sources, after payment of its interest on 
its bonded debt, amounting to less than $100,000, is hopelessly 
insufficient for its needs. Though nominally a State institution 
and under the direction of visitors appointed by the Governor of 
Virginia, as we have seen, it has always fulfilled Jefferson's high 
conception and drawn to it students from the whole country. In 
fact, it comes as near being a National university as any institution 
in the land. 

In view of these facts it has always appeared strange to those 
who know the university that in the dispensation of wealth for 
educational purposes by those whose generosity or high sense of 
duty has led to their endowment of such institutions, so little has 
been given to this one. Now and then some broad-minded man, 
like Fayerweather, with a spirit elevated far above his kind and 
a soul which takes in the whole country, includes it among the ob- 
jects of his beneficence, or some man like Arthur W. Austin, of 
Massachusetts, recognizes it as a great instrument for good and a 
fountain fertilizing a region which other streams do not reach. But 
for the most part, it has lain outside of the field in which public 
generosity has been exercised. 



234 THE OLD DOMINION 

and looking forward with confidence to her 
future, her friends may well adopt as their own 
the brave words of Jefferson, uttered during 
one of the most trying periods in the struggle 
to establish her, "It is from posterity we are to 
expect remuneration for the sacrifices we are 
making for their service, and I fear not the ap- 
peal." 



VI 



THE SOUTHERN PEOPLE DURING 
RECONSTRUCTION 

'"T^HE Southern people, prior to the war, were 
■*■ almost exclusively of English, Scotch, and 
Irish blood; the last being partly that Puritan 
strain that came originally from Scotland by 
way of Ireland, and is known among us as the 
"Scotch-Irish," a term wholly American. The 
only infusion, except in Louisiana, that need be 
taken into account was that of French Hugue- 
nots who had left France after the failure of 
their cause and the Revocation of the Edict of 
Nantes — a virile and sturdy stock. The popu- 
lation was almost entirely native-born. Even 
now, according to the last census, when the 
foreign-born population in some of the old States 
of the North runs up from one-fourth to one- 
third of the whole, the foreign-born population 
of the South is so small as scarcely to be worth 
considering; being in some States less than one 
per cent. 

These people inherited the traits and tenden- 

235 



236 THE OLD DOMINION 

cies of those from whom they had sprung; were 
bred on the traditions of the past, and loved the 
land on which they had been reared with a de- 
votion little short of idolatry. Taine, in his 
"History of English Literature," remarks that 
the Saxon, on his first settlement in England, 
as soon as a footing was made good, selected a 
hill or a grove beside a spring, built there a habi- 
tation, and was prepared to defend it to the 
death. The same instinct had survived among 
his descendants who settled in the South. The 
life there had fostered the inherent tendencies. 
While at the North the people lived in com- 
munities, at the South they took up lands in 
separate parcels and lived on them, apart from 
their neighbors. This tended to develop indi- 
viduality, and thus each man became in some 
sort a master and ruler of a domain, however 
small and mean it was. They were habituated 
to rule, to ride, to shoot, and to maintain their 
rights. The duel existed among those of the 
upper class; those of the more common sort were 
equally prepared to assert their rights in another 
form of contest. Lands and negroes were the 
principal kinds of property. 

The majority of the whites of the South were 
not slave-holders. Indeed, only a relatively 
small proportion of them were such. The cen- 



RECONSTRUCTION 237 

sus of 1850 showed that, of the entire white popu- 
lation of the South, those who owned slaves or 
hired slaves — if only one — were less than a half 
million, or one-sixth of the adult population. 
Many of these would have been glad to see 
slavery abolished, if it could have been done in 
any way by which whites and blacks could be 
equitably provided for; and there was a more 
or less constant agitation to enlarge the work 
of the Colonization societies that had long ex- 
isted. The interference of the Abolitionists and 
the invention of the cotton-gin together nullified 
the work of the colonizers. A far larger propor- 
tion than that of Slave-holders were landowners. 
It is probable that ninety-nine per cent, of these 
had been bred on the maxim that every man's 
house is his castle, and were ready to stand on 
that maxim to the death. 

The existence of slavery among them had, it 
is claimed, tended to discredit manual labor, but 
it had given the superior race the habits and the 
character of domination. Burke, in studying 
this same people nearly a hundred years before, 
had pointed out that the tendency of Slavery 
was to create an aristocracy of the governing 
people, and to give to the dominant race a feel- 
ing of superiority and the habit of control. 

Against this benefit, the institution of Slavery 



238 THE OLD DOMINION 

must be charged with having secluded the 
Southern people from the movement of the outer 
world as with a wall. 

They knew little more of the modern outside 
foreign world than they knew of Assyria and 
Babylon; that is, they knew it almost exclusively 
from books. They knew no more of New Eng- 
land and the rest of the North than New England 
knew of them, and that is a large measure. 
The time was to come when both were to know 
each other somewhat intimately, and their mis- 
conception of each other was to be rudely dis- 
posed of. 

The contest between the North and the South 
that had gone on for years had been of a kind 
to touch the Southerners nearly; it related to 
their property rights, and through these to their 
other rights under the Constitution. The Con- 
stitution itself was a matter of compromise, and 
with all its wisdom and adaptableness was, un- 
happily, in some particulars, liable to two diverse 
constructions. This early became a practical 
matter, chiefly owing to diverse interests grow- 
ing out of the existence of slave-labor in half 
the States, and two different schools of interpre- 
tation almost from the first sprang up in the 
country; the one teaching primary allegiance 
to the State, the other to the National Govern- 



RECONSTRUCTION 239 

ment. Owing to natural causes, the latter had 
come to have its chief adherents in the North; 
while the belief in States' rights found its strong- 
hold in the South. Yet singularly enough the 
great Chief Justice whose decisions welded the 
loose bands of the Constitution was a Virginian 
of the Virginians. 

Gradually, as the economic conditions be- 
came more pressing and the questions became 
more practical, the struggle was carried on with 
a heat and acrimony that tended always to in- 
flame passions already burning; and the breach 
that had existed from the first steadily widened, 
until at last the split was absolute and irremedi- 
able. In this contest, as the preponderance 
grew on the side of the North, the power of the 
National Government was beginning to be more 
and more thrown, or was liable to be more and 
more thrown, against the South, while the influ- 
ence of the several States was exerted on behalf 
of the latter's contention. Thus, the State 
eclipsed for the Southern people the National 
Government, and became more and more the 
representative of their principles and the object 
of their devotion. 

Even when the final convulsion came, a large 
percentage of the people of the South were de- 
voted to the Union and opposed to Secession. 



2 4 o THE OLD DOMINION 

For example, in Virginia, for the first time, per- 
haps, in her history, the Convention that was 
elected to consider the great questions at issue 
had a majority of Whigs. Virginia, in the 
shadow of the portentous cloud that was threat- 
ening her, had chosen her most conservative 
advisers, and refused to secede until all her 
efforts at pacification had failed, and she was 
called on to furnish her quota of troops to coerce 
the already seceded States back into the Union. 
War was made on her. Then, having to fight 
on one side or the other, she elected to side with 
the South. She could not tolerate Invasion. 

In Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, and 
Missouri the Union element was very large. 
Even in the other States it was not as insignifi- 
cant as has been considered. Though bells 
had been rung and salutes of joy fired when the 
Ordinances of Secession were adopted, there was 
a large and conservative element to whom the 
sound bore only sorrow. 

The storm of war swept everything along in 
its track. The whole of the South rose in arms. 
Men who had been the most earnest advocates 
of the Union went into the Southern army 
to resist Invasion. Even men like Governor 
Perry of South Carolina and General Wickham 
of Virginia, who had fought Secession to the last 



RECONSTRUCTION 24 1 

moment, at length went with the people of their 
States; "ready," as the former said, "to go to 
the devil with his own people." 

The war closed in the spring of 1865, after 
having lasted about four years. It cost the 
South even more than it cost the North, and 
its cost had no counterbalance. The actual 
expenditures of the Confederate Government 
from February 18, 1861, to October 1, 1864 
(the date of the last report accessible), were 
$2,099,768,707. To this must be added the loss 
to the people of the South of their personal prop- 
erty, of which the four millions of slaves consti- 
tuted only a part, and the destruction of all taxable 
values except the naked land. This was a total 
loss; for at the close of the war the repudiation of 
the bonded debt of the Confederate Government 
was enforced. Its currency was extirpated, as 
an incident. The railways, canals, and other 
public works were worn out and dilapidated. 
To the whole must be added the complete dis- 
organization of the labor system, and, later, 
the imposition of its proportionate part of the 
immense pension tax, which absorbed its money 
like a vast sponge, to pour it out in other parts 
of the country. When the whole is reckoned, 
the amount is almost too great to be compre- 
hended. 



242 THE OLD DOMINION 

The Reconstruction period lasted about eight 
years — reckoning to 1876, when the whites, on 
the removal of the United States troops, resumed 
control of all the Southern States. Its cost to 
the South has never been accurately calculated 
— perhaps, because it is incalculable. It is, 
however, not impossible — indeed, in the opinion 
of many it is probable — that, reckoning the 
indirect loss, it cost the South, even in those 
values which may be measured by figures, more 
than the war itself had done. 

When the war closed, the armies of the Con- 
federacy, composed of well-nigh the entire man- 
hood of the South, had been destroyed, but the 
remnants had gone home, prepared to apply all 
their energies to building up the South afresh; 
the personal property of the South had been 
largely swept away, but the lands, the chief basis 
of its former wealth, remained. 

The slaves had been emancipated, and labor 
had been disorganized; but the laborers yet 
survived, full of health, skilled in many kinds of 
manual work, trained to habits of industry, and 
disciplined to good order. Besides its equip- 
ment of able-bodied field-laborers, almost every 
plantation possessed its smiths, wheelwrights, 
and carpenters; its spinners and weavers and 
cobblers. Moreover, outside of the question of 



RECONSTRUCTION 243 

emancipation, the blacks were generally in full 
sympathy with the whites, and the ties of person- 
al association and affection were recognized on 
both sides. It was not unknown for officers 
returning from the war to give their body ser- 
vants the horses they rode. The tool-chests 
were opened to the mechanics. Jewels and 
plate, which had been held through all the hard- 
ships of war-time, were sold to feed the popu- 
lation of the plantations. 

When Reconstruction was completed ten years 
later, what personal property had remained at the 
close of the war had, speaking generally, almost 
wholly disappeared; the laboring population 
of the South had been diverted from its former 
field, and changed from a blessing to a curse; 
the former relation of dependency and sympathy 
had been changed to one of distrust and hos- 
tility; their habits of industry had fallen to 
those of idleness and worthlessness; the lands 
had been taken from the former owners by tax- 
ation, or rendered valueless in their hands; and 
the white people of the South found themselves 
alienated from the Government— or, more prop- 
erly, from those who then conducted the Govern- 
ment—impoverished beyond hope, their former 
slaves turned from friends to enemies, and them- 
selves fighting with their backs to the wall 



244 THE OLD DOMINION 

for the very existence of civilization in their 
section. 

Happily for all classes and sections, they won 
at last; but it was at a terrible cost. Among 
the items of loss was the old civilization of the 
South, with its ideals and its charm. 

The rest of the country has never had a very 
accurate idea of what this civilization was; the 
present generation certainly has none, and it is 
not to be wondered at. Remnants of it yet re- 
main; but they are to be sought for and found 
only in secluded places, as relics of antique art 
are discovered amid ruins or tangles in out-of- 
the-way parts, or are exhumed from beneath 
the desolation and the heaps of decayed cities, 
or under new cities built on the ancient sites. 

Possibly the most general conception of the 
old life at the South held by the rest of the 
country is that drawn from "Uncle Tom's Cab- 
in," a work which, whatever its truth in detail 
— and there was doubtless much truth in it — 
yet, by reason of its omissions and its grouping, 
contained even more untruth as a picture of 
a civilization. As an argument against the evils 
inherent in slavery, it was unanswerable; as 
a presentation of the life it undertook to mir- 
ror, it was rather a piece of emotional fiction, 
infused with the spirit of an able and sincere 



RECONSTRUCTION 245 

but only partially informed partisan, than a cor- 
rect reflection. It served a purpose far beyond 
the dream, and possibly even the intention, of 
its author; it did much to hasten the overthrow 
of slavery; it did no less to stain the reputation 
of the South, and obscure what was worthy and 
fine in its life, and it blinded the North to the vast 
gulf of racial difference. From that time the 
people of the South were regarded, outside its 
own borders, much as — shall we say, China is re- 
garded to-day ? — as one of the effete peoples, as 
an obstacle in the path of advance, and possibly, 
among many, as an object of righteous spoil. 
Is it too much to say that the general idea of 
the people of the South held by the people of the 
North was that they were lazy, self-indulgent, 
and frequently cruel; that they passed their 
time in the indulgence of their appetites, sup- 
ported by the painful labors of slaves to whose 
woes they were worse than indifferent ? 

What the South really was she gave no small 
proof of during the war; she gave even stronger 
proof of after the war. Without ships; without 
money; without machinery that could produce 
a knife, a blanket, or a tin cup; without an ally; 
without even the sympathy of a single nation; 
without knowledge of the outside world, or in- 
deed of her able and determined opponent, she 



246 THE OLD DOMINION 

withstood to the final gasp the vast forces 
thrown against her — enduring all things, hop- 
ing all things, until she was not only overthrown, 
but was actually destroyed. When Sherman 
marched across the South to the sea, he found 
it to be an empty shell. At that same time the 
campaign from the Rapidan to Appomattox cost 
Grant 124,000 men, — about two men for every 
man that Lee had in his army. 

But as notable as were the intrepidity of her 
soldiery in the field and the endurance of her 
people at home, they were not equal to the reso- 
lution and courage that her people displayed in 
the great and unrecorded struggle afterwards. 
The one was a fight of disciplined armies, with 
an open sky and a fair field, the endurance of a 
people animated by hope; the other was a long 
and desperate struggle, with shackled hands, 
against a foe that, in the darkness, unknown 
to the rest of the world, or with a sort of blind 
approval on its part, fastened on its vitals and 
slowly sapped its life-blood. 

The several classes of which the population 
of the Southern States at the close of the war 
were composed were rapidly merged into two — 
the whites and the blacks. The whites had, 
with few exceptions, been in the war, and, trained 
in its stern school, were inured to hardship and 



RECONSTRUCTION 247 

self-reliance. Class-distinctions had been di- 
minished; for the poor as well as the rich had 
borne their part bravely in the struggle, and every 
man, irrespective of social condition, had the 
consciousness of having imperilled his life and 
given his all to serve his State. 

It was a veteran soldiery that repeopled the 
plantations and the homesteads of the South, 
and withstood the forces thrown against them 
during the period of Reconstruction. In ad- 
dition to such racial traits as personal pride, 
self-reliance, and physical courage, they pos- 
sessed also race pride, which is inestimable in 
a great popular struggle. This race pride the 
war had only increased. However beaten and 
broken they were, the people of the South came 
out of the war with their spirit unquenched, and 
a belief that they were unconquerable. 

A story used to be told of an old Confederate 
soldier who was trudging home, after the war, 
broken and ragged and worn. He was asked 
what he would do if the Yankees got after him 
when he reached home. 

"Oh, they ain't goin' to trouble me," he said. 
"If they do, I'll just whip 'em agin." 

The South, after the war, was ready for peace. 
Its leaders accepted the terms of capitulation 
without a single mental reservation. 



248 THE OLD DOMINION 

The terms had been equally honorable to 
both the victors and the vanquished; and the 
troops returned home fully prepared to abide by 
those terms in every particular. They were sus- 
tained by the consciousness of having been ani- 
mated by the highest of motives — love of coun- 
try and of home — of having made an unsur- 
passed struggle, and of being able to meet and 
endure every fortune that could befall. Their 
idolized general refused all proffers of aid and 
tenders of attention, and retired to the little col- 
lege-town of Lexington, Virginia, to devote the 
rest of his life to educating the young men of 
the South. George Washington had given the 
first endowment to the college there, and the 
next greatest Virginian now endowed it with 
his presence and his spirit. Here the sons of his 
old soldiers flocked to be under the command 
of the man who had led their fathers in battle, 
and to learn from his life the high lesson of de- 
votion to duty. 

The writer can speak from personal knowl- 
edge when he records that his teaching was the 
purest patriotism. As was said by a distin- 
guished divine who came to deliver the bac- 
calaureate sermon the year after General 
Lee's death: "The oath sworn at that shrine 
was more solemn than that of Hannibal. It 



RECONSTRUCTION 249 

was not to destroy Rome, but to rebuild 
Carthage. " 

The example of General Lee was inestimable. 
It possibly did as much as the garrisons that 
filled the South to prevent the lawlessness that 
almost always follows the close of war and the 
disbandment of armies. 

The worst that the people of the South an- 
ticipated was being brought back into the Union 
with their property gone and their wounds yet 
smarting. The sense of defeat, together with 
the loss of property by force of arms, which left 
them almost universally impoverished, and the 
disruption of their social system, was no little 
burden for them to bear; but it was assumed 
bravely enough, and they went to work with 
energy and courage, and even with a certain 
high-heartedness. They started in on the plan- 
tations, where by reason of the disorganization 
of all labor they were needed, as wagoners or 
ploughmen or blacksmiths. They went — the 
best-born of them — to the cities, and became 
brakemen or street-car drivers, or watchmen or 
porters. Or they sought employment on pub- 
lic works in any capacity; men who had been 
generals even taking places as axemen or team- 
sters till they could rise to be superintendents 
and presidents. But they had Peace and Hope. 



250 THE OLD DOMINION 

On the 1 8th of December, 1865, General 
Grant, who had been sent through the South 
by the President to inspect and make a report 
on its condition, in his report said: — 

"I am satisfied the mass of thinking men in 
the South accept the present situation of affairs 
in good faith. The questions which have hith- 
erto divided the sentiment of the people of the 
two sections — slavery and State rights, or the 
right of the State to secede from the Union — 
they regard as having been settled forever by 
the highest tribunal, that of arms, that man can 
resort to." 

He also made the wise suggestion that Negro 
troops should not be employed in garrisoning 
the Southern States, as they tended to excite 
the people and intensify their animosity. 

It is possible that but for the Race questions 
that existed, the South would have been pacified 
within a few years; the process of Reconstruction 
if it was tried at all, would have been carried out 
in a wiser and less disastrous way; the South 
would have resumed its normal place in the 
Union with the net results of the war — an in- 
dissoluble Union and a homogeneous people, 
freed from the canker of Slavery and bound to- 
gether by even closer ties than before. 

The whites numbered, roughly, about 8,000,- 



RECONSTRUCTION 251 

000, and the other class, the Negroes, about 
4,000,000. A relation too singular to be under- 
stood by the outside world existed between 
the races. It bore on the side of the mas- 
ters a sort of feudal coloring — the right to de- 
mand duty, and the duty to give protection; 
on the part of the slaves it had a tinge that has 
been well said to resemble a sort ot tribal in- 
stinct. The outside world, including the North, 
saw only a relation of brute power and of en- 
forced subservience. The examples which came 
to their attention were, in the main, only the 
worst cases. The proportion of Negroes who, 
during the war, availed themselves of the op- 
portunity to escape from slavery and seek 
asylum within the Union lines was by no means 
a large one. Doubtless they comprised many 
who were ambitious and enterprising; but, speak- 
ing generally, they were the idle and the vicious. 
Others went because of the scarcity on the plan- 
tations, caused by the war, or of the new hard- 
ship, due to the absenteeism of their masters, 
and the rumors of the gilded rewards awaiting 
them— rewards beyond freedom— which reached 
them in their homes. Many Confederate offi- 
cers had their colored servants with them in the 
field. It was almost unheard of for one to de- 
sert. It was not unknown for them to avail 



252 THE OLD DOMINION 

themselves of their color to forage within the 
enemy's lines for their master's mess. 

The Negroes had, as slaves, indeed, have often 
done during wars, borne themselves admirably 
all during the war — a fact which speaks with 
equal force for their loyalty and for their knowl- 
edge of the resolution of their masters. Even 
those who, under the temptation of freedom 
and bounties, had gone into the Union army 
had never been charged with exceptional vio- 
lence. Emancipation had brought no outbreak. 
They had generally gone off from their old 
homes — perhaps, as a practical proof of freedom, 
— most of them slipping away in the night; but 
the first taste of freedom over, and the first pinch 
of poverty experienced, they had come straggling 
back with a certain shamefacedness, and had 
been received with cordiality. 

The writer can recall now the return of some 
of these prodigals, and the welcome they re- 
ceived. 

In many cases they had their old cabins as- 
signed them; in others, at their option, they were 
given a lodgement on a piece of land on some 
part of the plantation more or less removed 
from the mansion, where they could build and 
live independent whilst they worked as labor- 
ers for hire. Almost universally, the relation 



RECONSTRUCTION 253 

re-established after the first break was one of 
friendship and good-will. Their return was 
marked by a revival of the old plantation life, 
and in a short time, the old regime appeared 
to have begun again, with every prospect of 
continuing. Land, the only property which 
had survived the war, rose in value, until it 
was as high as it had ever been. Loans were 
negotiated on it to repair the ravages of war and 
restock the plantations; cotton, wheat, and to- 
bacco commanded prices that promised well for 
the agricultural interest; and the people of the 
South began to experience the awakening of hope. 
The machinery, however, had hardly got 
started when new factors injected into the new 
conditions began to make themselves felt. The 
treatment in prison of the ex-President, who 
was put in irons and subjected to the constant 
presence of a sentinel, aroused bitter resent- 
ment at the South. A very considerable faction 
there had always been opposed to Mr. Davis. 
But he had done no more during the Secession 
period than half the people of the South had 
done, and no more during the war than all of 
them had done, and his treatment now was 
taken as an intention to humiliate them. It 
had, moreover, as an object lesson, a disastrous 
effect on the Negro population, who drew from 



254 THE OLD DOMINION 

it the not unnatural inference that the North 
was able and willing to go to any lengths. 

The severity visited on Mr. Davis at once de- 
stroyed every vestige of resentment in those 
who had opposed him, and from that time to his 
death he stood to the South as a vicarious vic- 
tim, sacrificed for her act. 

Unhappily, the work of a madman cut down, 
in the very hour of success, the leader who had 
brought the country safely through the war, 
and who might, with his calm foresight and his 
gift for conciliation, have guided it through the 
troubled times that were to follow. The assas- 
sination of President Lincoln, with the murder- 
ous attack on his advisers, filled the North with 
consternation and rage, and gave the chief haters 
of the South an opportunity to vent their wrath 
on her which they were not slow to use. 

Under a plan devised by Mr. Lincoln, the 
recently seceded States had set to work to re- 
organize themselves, and their civil govern- 
ments were in full operation a few months after 
the close of the war. The next step was the 
election of Representatives in Congress. In the 
main, men known nationally to be of conserv- 
ative views, many of them old Union men, were 
selected. It was, however, to be long before 
Southern Representatives were to be admitted. 



RECONSTRUCTION 255 

Now, in its struggle, the South had no such 
potent friend as Lincoln might have been. 
The first official act of Secretary Stanton after 
Mr. Lincoln's death had been to reverse one 
of his decisions, and issue an order for the arrest 
of a member of the late Confederate Cabinet 
who was on his way to Canada. On Lincoln's 
death, Andrew Johnson, who had come into note- 
as the war-governor of the newly reconstructed 
State of Tennessee, had begun by breathing 
threatenings and slaughter against the South. 
His first measures had been so severe that Mr. 
Seward had felt it necessary to restrain him. 
His proposed action had been so violative of the 
terms accorded by Grant at Appomattox to Lee 
and his army that Grant, always magnanimous 
and courageous, had felt himself compelled to 
threaten him with the surrender of his com- 
mand. In a short time, however, a contention 
had arisen between Johnson and the Congress, 
growing, on his side, partly out of his attempt 
to exercise the power claimed for the Executive 
by Mr. Lincoln, partly out of his ambition to be 
re-elected, and the necessity he was under to 
secure the votes of the Southern States as a part 
of his electoral machinery; on the other side, out 
of the wish of the Congress to control the reor- 
ganization of the South, and the determination 



256 THE OLD DOMINION 

of its ablest leaders to secure at all cost perpetual 
control of the Government. Johnson, who had 
been among the most virulent enemies of the 
South, and assuredly not the least hated, was 
thrown by this contest into the anomalous posi- 
tion of its advocate, and the Congress was hur- 
ried along, with its passions inflamed by its most 
radical leaders, until reason was lost, modera- 
tion was thrown to the winds, and it found itself 
paramount, indeed — with the South prostrate, 
the Constitution a thing to be tinkered with or 
overridden as partisan expediency suggested, 
and "the party of the Union" burdened in the 
South with the most ignorant, venal, and de- 
bauched representatives that ever cursed a land. 
The white race of the South, a constituent 
part of the great race that had made the coun- 
try and was to help hold it in the coming years 
against the world, was outraged almost be- 
yond cure. With every divergence of opinion 
forgot, every possibility of wholesome division 
on economic or other public questions buried, 
the white people were consolidated in the pas- 
sionate desire to hold their homes and save 
their race and their civilization. 

The blacks had not been less injured by the 
political debauchery into which they had been 
wiled. Withdrawn from the field of activity 



RECONSTRUCTION 257 

in which they had been trained, and in which 
they might have attained continued success, 
the close of the Reconstruction period found them 
estranged from the whites, their habits of in- 
dustry impaired, their vision obscured, their 
aims turned in directions in which they have 
shown neither the genius nor the training to 
compete successfully. They were legislated into 
a position where they did only harm to them- 
selves and others, and in which they could be 
maintained only by outside power. 

It was the South's misfortune that the new 
problems could not be worked out on their 
own merits. The Negro question, "the direful 
spring of woes unnumbered," almost at once 
became the paramount issue, and from that time 
to the present it has tinged nearly every meas- 
ure in which the South has been concerned. 
Emancipation had been accepted readily enough; 
but emancipation brought new problems. The 
proper solution of the new questions, which 
would have been a delicate and difficult task 
under any circumstances, was rendered im- 
possible by the ignorance of the elements to be 
handled, and the passion infused into every act 
touching them. 

The institution known as the Freedmen's 
Bureau, and its work in the South, played a not 



258 THE OLD DOMINION 

inconsiderable part in the trouble that arose. 
The motive for its origin was, no doubt, a good 
one, and, no doubt, a part of its work was bene- 
ficial to one of the races. It had the "super- 
vision and management of all abandoned lands, 
and the control of all subjects relating to refu- 
gees and freedmen." It issued rations to freed- 
men; regulated all matters of labor and contract 
in which the freedmen were interested; admin- 
istered justice wherever they were concerned; 
and had power to take charge of all "abandoned 
lands" and parcel them out to Negroes as homes, 
and generally to administrate the Negro and his 
affairs. Incident to these duties was the power 
to arrest and imprison. The Bureau began its 
work with an idea which was fatal to its success: 
that the Negro was a poor oppressed creature 
who was to be treated as the Nation's ward, and 
that the White was a hardened tyrant who had 
to be restrained. 

The officials of the Bureau were of various 
kinds: honest men, more or less fair-minded and 
wise; honest men, hopelessly prejudiced and big- 
oted; and men without honesty, .wisdom, or any 
other qualification whatsoever for the work in 
hand. All were absolutely ignorant of the true 
relation between the old masters and slaves; all 
had a bigoted people behind them, and a bigoted 



RECONSTRUCTION 259 

people before them. Unhappily, the largest, or, at 
least, the most active element among the officials 
were the last class: sutlers, skulkers, and other ref- 
use of a great army, who had no sooner found the 
dangers of war over than they had begun to look 
about them to see what spoil they could appro- 
priate, and, recognizing in the newly freed Negroes 
the most promising instrument at hand for their 
purposes, had ingratiated themselves with the 
Freedmen's Bureau. One of the first evidences 
of their malign influence was the idea dissem- 
inated among the Negroes, which grew out of the 
provision relating to abandoned lands, that every 
freedman was to be given by the Government, 
out of the lands of his old master, forty acres 
and a mule — a teaching which was productive 
of much danger to the whites, and of much evil 
to the blacks. Among other things, it prevented 
the former from settling the Negroes on the old 
plantations, as they would otherwise have done 
very generally. 

The Freedmen's Bureau and its work soon 
had the whole South in a ferment. The dis- 
tribution of rations relieved the slaves, but mis- 
led them into thinking that the Government 
would support them, whether they worked or 
not. The officials began inquisitorial investi- 
gations. They summoned the best and the 



260 THE OLD DOMINION 

most stately of the old gentry before them, as if 
they had been schoolboys. If the officials were 
of the last class mentioned above, they hectored 
them before crowds of gaping Negroes, which 
taught another lesson. They interfered with 
the administration of courts that had begun to 
work again, even taking convicted prisoners out 
of the hands of the officers of the law. As an 
illustration: In Virginia, an old magistrate, who 
had tried and sentenced a Negro for some crime, 
was peremptorily ordered by the military au- 
thority to release the prisoner, and appear him- 
self before the provost to explain his action. 
He replied that the prisoner had been tried fairly, 
convicted justly, and sentenced legally; and 
though he might be released by the military 
power, it would only be after he had summoned 
the whole power of the county to resist it. 

Naturally, such action tended to excite the 
Negroes and embitter the whites. 

The Negroes in some places began to hold 
night-meetings, and parcel out the lands of their 
former masters. 

On one of the finest plantations in Virginia 
this nocturnal partition went along amicably 
enough until the mill was reached. Here 
trouble arose at once. The idea of being able 
to sit and watch the meal spurt down from under 



RECONSTRUCTION 261 

the hopper, with nothing to do but to take the 
tithe, was so attractive that there were too many 
claimants to agree to its disposal to any one of 
them, and the meeting broke up in a row. 
Knowledge of what was going on thus reached 
the master, who sent at once to the court-house 
for the Federal officer stationed there, who then 
represented law and order in the county; and 
the officer soon settled the matter, and disposed 
of all apprehension of further trouble on that 
plantation. 

No one would say that army officers make 
generally ideal rulers; for, after all, military rule 
subjects government to the will of one man. 
In the pacification of a people, the questions are 
so difficult and delicate that only wisdom, firm- 
ness, singleness of purpose, and an inherent sense 
of equity avail. These did not always exist. 
But a dispassionate reading of the records shows 
that the army officers in the South endeavored, 
in the main, to perform their duties with wis- 
dom, equity, and moderation. Conditions, how- 
ever, were to grow worse. The army officers 
were soon to be supplanted by worse rulers. 

The carcass was recognized, and the "eagles" 
gathered together. The sutlers, skulkers, and 
refuse, who had been given a chance, under the 
working of the Bureau, to ingratiate themselves 



262 THE OLD DOMINION 

with the Negroes, soon were chosen as the politi- 
cal leaders. The ignorance and the credulity 
of the Negro became the capital of these crea- 
tures, and with it they traded to their own en- 
richment and the impoverishment of every one 
else. The misapprehension on the part of the 
Southern People of the changed conditions 
played into their hands. 

The laboring population had been withdrawn 
from the fields, but were still present in the com- 
munity, while the fields were untitled and the 
plantations were going to waste. History had 
shown that such an element might change from 
a useless to a dangerous one. The legislatures 
of the various States, assuming that, after a suc- 
cessful war to preserve the Union, the Union still 
existed, and unable to recognize the complete- 
ness of their overthrow, began to pass labor-laws 
directed at the Negro, some of which certainly 
were calculated to impair his freedom of action. 
Similar laws existed in some of the Northern 
States, such as Maine, Rhode Island, and Con- 
necticut. But these new statutes were frankly 
aimed to control the newly emancipated slaves. 
An impression of profound distrust was created 
throughout the North, the people of which, with 
their sympathies quickened for an entire race 
turned adrift, without homes or property, had 



RECONSTRUCTION 263 

almost begun to consider that the war had been 
fought for the emancipation of the blacks. Un- 
happily, at the same time State Representatives 
were chosen whose votes might have a decisive in- 
fluence on the fortunes of those radical leaders 
who now esteemed themselves the saviours of the 
country. It was determined by these leaders 
to perpetuate their power at every hazard even 
if it were found necessary to overthrow the 
white race altogether, and put the black race over 
them. The South was intractable and uncom- 
promising. The North was blinded by passion, 
and led by partisan leaders bent on domina- 
tion and without scruple in their exercise of 
power. A large element of the people of the 
North believed that they were doing God and 
Man service in supporting them, and putting 
down a rancorous people who were, they thought, 
still ready to destroy the Union, and were try- 
ing to effect by shift what they had failed to do 
by force. But so far as the leaders were con- 
cerned it would appear that along with other 
motives was an implacable resentment against 
the white people of the South, and a deliberate 
determination to humiliate them and render 
them forever powerless. The result was one of 
the mistakes that constitute what in the life of a 
nation is worse than a national crime— a national 



264 THE OLD DOMINION 

blunder. Those who had been the masters, 
and had given proof by their works that they 
were behind no people on the earth in the 
highest fruits of civilization — who had just 
shown by their constancy, if by no other virtue, 
that they were worthy of being treated with 
consideration — were disfranchised and shut out 
from participation in the Government, while 
their former slaves were put to rule over them. 
For instance, in the county that had produced 
Patrick Henry and Henry Clay, one of the most 
noted of the old gentlemen stood as a conserv- 
ative candidate for the first General Assembly 
held in Virginia after the war. He was a man 
of remarkable intelligence and culture. He had 
travelled abroad — a rare thing in those days — 
and had translated the poems of Ariosto. He 
was one of the largest property owners in the 
State; had been a Union man and one of the 
stoutest opponents of Secession. He was the 
head of one of the few old families in Virginia 
who, immediately after the war, announced 
their determination to accept the new conditions 
and act with the Republican party. This gen- 
tleman was beaten for the General Assembly by 
the brother of his Negro carriage-driver. This 
was early in the period following the war. Later 
on, when "ironclad oaths" had been devised, 



RECONSTRUCTION 265 

and the full work of disfranchisement had been 
effected, no whites but those who had had their 
disabilities specially removed could hold office 
or vote. For a time, only the Negroes, the carpet- 
baggers, and those who disregarded perjury 
voted. 

The white race was disfranchised, and were 
not allowed the franchise again until they had 
assented to giving the black race absolute equal- 
ity in all matters of civil right. This the leaders 
of the other side vainly imagined would perpet- 
uate their power, and for a time it almost prom- 
ised to do so. 

The result of the new regime thus established 
in the South was such a riot of rapine and ras- 
cality as had never been known in the history 
of this country, and hardly ever in the history 
of the world. It would seem incredible to any 
but those who have investigated it for themselves. 
The States were given over to pillage at the 
hands of former slaves, led largely by advent- 
urers whose only aim was to gratify their ven- 
geance or their cupidity. The measure of their 
peculation and damage, as gauged by figures 
alone, staggers belief.* 

*The cost to the State of Louisiana of four years and five months 
of carpet-bag rule amounted to $106,020,337. Taxation went up 
in proportion. The wealth of New Orleans during the eight yean 
of carpet-bag rule, instead of increasing, fell from $146,718,790 



266 THE OLD DOMINION 

But as extraordinary as the mere figures would 
appear, and as strong as they are to show the 
extent of the robbery to which the people of the 
South were subjected, they give little idea of the 
bitterness of the degradation that they under- 
went. The true measure of injury to the people 
of the South was the humiliation to which they 
were subjected during the progress of this sys- 
tem of rapine. Some States were subjected 
to greater damage and, if possible, deeper hu- 
miliation than others. The people of South 
Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas, 
perhaps, suffered the most: but all underwent 
the humiliation of seeing their States given over 

to $88,613,930. The governor himself, who, when he stood for 
the governorship, had a mite chest placed beside the ballot box 
to receive contributions from the Negroes to pay his expenses to 
Washington, had been in office only a year when it was estimated 
that he was worth $225,000. When he retired, he was said to 
have one of the largest fortunes in Louisiana. 

In Mississippi, the State levy for 187 1 was four times what it 
was in 1869. For 1873 it was eight and one-half times as great. 
For 1874 it was fourteen times as great, and 640,000 acres of land, 
comprising twenty per cent, of all the land in the State, had been 
forfeited for non-payment of these extraordinary taxes. 

In South Carolina, the taxable values in i860 amounted to about 
$490,000,000, and the tax to a little less than $400,000. In 187 1 
the taxable values had been reduced to $184,000,000, and the tax 
had been increased to $2,000,000. A large percentage of the lands 
of the State were sold for unpaid taxes, and a land commission 
was established to take them and distribute them among the 
freedmen and their friends on terms that substantially placed them 
at the disposal of the commission. " Noted Men of the Solid South." 



RECONSTRUCTION 267 

to pillage by miscreants and malefactors; of 
having their slaves put over them and kept over 
them by armed power, whilst they themselves 
were forced to stand bound, helpless witnesses 
of their destruction. 

Virginia escaped in a measure some of the 
most extreme consequences. For instance, there 
were no continued incitements to riot and no 
wholesale arrests of an entire community, as 
took place in South Carolina; there was no 
general subjection to an armed and insolent 
militia of former slaves who terrorized the coun- 
try, as happened in the more southerly States. 
Virginia never had a governor, as Arkansas 
had, who issued to his adjutant general pro- 
scription lists of leading citizens, accompanied 
by a notification that he had marked with aster- 
isks the names of the most obnoxious persons, 
and that if they could be tried by court-martial 
and disposed of while the writ of habeas corpus 
was suspended, the finding would be approved 
by the governor. The Ku Klux Klan, with its 
swath of outrage and terrorism, never obtained 
the footing in Virginia that it had in States 
farther south, where life had been made more 
unendurable. But the people of Virginia, like 
those of the other Southern States, drank from 
the same cup of bitterness in seeing their civil- 



268 THE OLD DOMINION 

ization overthrown — intelligence, culture, and 
refinement put under the heel of ignorance and 
venality, and a third of the people, who had 
comprised most of the laboring population and 
all the domestic servants, and had lived in the 
past in amity and affection with their masters, 
turned for a time into violent enemies. 

Unhappily, the credulity and ignorance of the 
Negroes threw them into the hands of the worst 
element among the adventurers who were vieing 
to become their leaders. The man who was 
bold enough to bid the highest outstripped the 
others. Under the teaching and with the aid of 
these leaders, the Negroes showed signs of render- 
ing considerable portions of the Southern States 
uninhabitable by the whites. Had the latter given 
the slightest sign of being cowed or of yielding, 
they probably would have been lost forever; but, 
fortunately for the South, they never yielded. 

Unable to resist openly the power of the 
National Government that stood behind the 
Carpet-bag Governments of the States, the 
people of the South resorted to other means 
which proved for a time more or less effective. 
Secret societies were formed, which, under such 
titles as the "Ku Klux Klan," the "Knights of 
the White Camellia," the "White Brother- 
hood,'' etc., played a potent and, at first, it 



RECONSTRUCTION 

would seem, a beneficial part in restraining the 
excesses of the newly exalted leaders and their 
excited levies. 

Wherever masked and ghostly riders appeared, 
the frightened Negroes kept under cover. The 
idea spread with great rapidity over nearly all 
the South, and the secret organizations, known 
among themselves as the "Invisible Empire," 
were found to be so dangerous to the continued 
power of the Carpet-bag Governments, and in 
places so menacing to their representatives per- 
sonally, that the aid of the National Govern- 
ment was called in to suppress them. 

In a short time every power of the Government 
was in motion, or ready to be set in motion, 
against them. "Ku Klux Acts" were passed; 
Presidential proclamations were issued; the en- 
tile machinery of the United States courts was 
put in operation; the writ of habeas corpus was 
suspended in those sections where the Ku Klux 
were most in evidence, and Federal troops were 
employed. 

The testimony taken before what was known 
as the "Ku Klux Committee," with the reports 
made by that committee, is contained in thirteen 
volumes, and makes interesting reading for the 
student of History. The investigation covered 
every State in the South. 



270 THE OLD DOMINION 

One who studies those reports is likely to 
find his confidence in human nature somewhat 
shaken. It will appear to him that gross and 
palpable perjury was almost common before 
that committee, and that the story contained 
in those reports is so dreadful that if published 
now it would not be believed. It serves to 
illustrate, at least, the violence of party feeling 
at that time, that, under the stress of passion 
which then prevailed, the Republican members 
of the Committee of Investigation all signed one 
report laying the entire blame on the Southern 
People, and the Democratic members all signed 
a minority report charging the blame wholly on 
the other side. 

With Congress passing penal acts against all 
connected with the secret societies, the army of 
the United States at hand to put them down, 
and the United States courts ready to push 
through the convictions of all participants in 
their work, the constituency and purposes of the 
secret societies soon changed. The more law- 
abiding and self-respecting element dropped out, 
and such organizations as remained were com- 
posed only of the most disorderly and reckless 
element. Under conduct of such a class, the 
societies, whatever their original design, soon 
degenerated into mere bands of masked ruffians, 



RECONSTRUCTION 271 

who used their organization and their disguises 
for the private purposes of robbery and revenge. 
As might have been foreseen, they became a 
general pest in the regions which they infested, 
and the better element of native Southerners 
were as concerned to put a stop to their action 
as was the Government. This class, later on, 
found it necessary to keep themselves banded 
together; but it was no longer in a secret associ- 
ation. During the later phases of the struggle 
the meetings of the whites were open. Fort- 
unately for them, by this time the debauchery 
of those who had formerly been sustained by 
the Government had become so openly infamous 
that it began to be known at the North for what 
it really was, and the people of the North began 
to revolt against its continuance. The indorse- 
ment of the Government leaders at Washington 
became more and more half-hearted; and as 
this was recognized, the white people of the 
South began to be reanimated with hope. 

The action of the other side at the South 
generally played into their hands. The lead- 
ers lacked the first element of wisdom; their 
moderation was only the limit to their power. 

The women and children of the Southern 
States, during the utmost excitement of war, 
had slept as secure with their slaves about them 



272 THE OLD DOMINION 

as if they had been guarded by their husbands 
and fathers; but under the new teaching the 
torch became a weapon. A distinguished lead- 
er of the colored race, a native white man in 
South Carolina, said, in a public speech to his 
constituents, that the barns had been built by 
them, and their contents belonged to them; and 
if they were refused the distribution of those 
contents, "matches were only five cents a box." 
Is it to be wondered at that, with such sugges- 
tion, the burning of houses became more or 
less frequent in the belts subject to the domina- 
tion of the excited race ? This man, who had 
many crimes to answer for, after passing through 
numberless dangers, became the victim of a foul 
assassination. A story is told that some years 
later two men were sitting together in a well- 
known restaurant in Washington. One of 
them, who was from a Northern State, said to 
the other who was from South Carolina, "Tell 
me, now that it is so long past, who murdered 
So-and-So," mentioning the name of the leader 
who has been spoken of. "Well," said the 
other quietly, "I was tried for it." 

Amiable and orderly as the colored race were 
when the whites were in control, as soon as an 
election approached they showed every sign of 
excitement. When they were in power, life 



RECONSTRUCTION 173 

became intolerable, and a clash was imminent 

at every meeting; many families, unable to en- 
dure the strain, abandoned their homes, and 
moved to other communities or other States. 
The distinguished pastor of a large church in 
the North, one of the godliest of men, who had 
a church during this period in one of the South- 
ern States, has said that when he went to his 
night services he as regularly put a pistol in his 
pocket as he took his Bible. Even funerals 
were liable to be interrupted by the half-mad- 
dened creatures, and instances occurred when 
the hearse had to be driven at full speed to 
outstrip a mob bent on the last extremity of 
insult. 

It was notable that even during the periods 
of greatest excitement, when the Negroes were 
stirred almost to frenzy, the old family servants 
ever stood ready to prevent personal harm to 
their former masters and mistresses; and that 
when the excitement had passed, the entire race 
were ready to resume, and even to seek, friendly 
relations with the whites. 

When, at last, with their homes rendered un- 
safe and their life intolerable, the people of the 
South finally threw off the yoke under which 
they had been bowed, it is hardly strange that 
they should thenceforth have remained solidi- 



274 THE OLD DOMINION 

fied to withstand the possibility of such a con- 
dition ever being repeated. 

It is not probable that any wholly sane man 
of any section or race, who knows the facts, 
would ever wish its repetition. The last governor 
of South Carolina under the carpet-bag regime 
stated during his incumbency, that when, in 
May, 1875, he entered on his duties as governor, 
two hundred trial-justices were holding office by 
executive appointment (of his predecessor) who 
could neither read nor write. No wonder that 
he should have declared, as he did, in writing 
to the New England Society, that the civiliza- 
tion of the Puritan and Cavalier, of the Round- 
head and Huguenot, was in peril. 

In the last stages of their existence, these gov- 
ernments were sustained solely by the bayonet. 
As soon as the United States troops were re- 
moved they melted away. As an illustration: 
In South Carolina, in 1876, after the extraor- 
dinary Wade Hampton campaign, in which the 
whites had won a signal victory, two distinct 
State Governments performed their functions 
in the State House; a small guard of United 
States soldiers marched their beats back and 
forth, representing the power that alone sus- 
tained one of those governments. An order 
was issued by the President of the United States 



RFXONSTRUCTION 27 5 

removing the troops, and in twenty-four hours, 
without a drop of blood shed, without a single 
clash, the government of the carpet-bagger and 
the Negro had disappeared, and the government 
of the native South Carolinian and of the white 
man had quietly, after a lapse of years, resumed 
control. But during those years the people of 
the South had seen their most cherished tra- 
ditions traversed, their civilization overthrown. 

The late Senator Hoar, of Massachusetts, 
passed, years ago, a judgment upon the South- 
ern People which was not lacking in vigorous 
criticism; but his criticism was tempered by a 
piece of characterization which it seems not 
impertinent to quote here. 

"They have," he said, "an aptness for com- 
mand, which makes the Southern gentleman, 
wherever he goes, not a peer only, but a prince. 
They have a love for home; they have, the best 
of them, and the most of them, inherited from 
the great race from which they come the sense 
of duty and the instinct of honor as no other 
people on the face of the earth. They are 
lovers of home. They have not the mean traits 
which grow up somewhere in places where 
money-making is the chief end of life. They 
have, above all, and giving value to all, that su- 
preme and superb constancy which, without re- 



276 THE OLD DOMINION 

gard to personal ambition and without yielding 
to the temptation of wealth, without getting 
tired and without getting diverted, can pursue 
a great public object, in and out, year after 
year, and generation after generation." 

Looking at the other race in the South — 
who must be reckoned, if they will allow them- 
selves to be so, as a part of the Southern People 
— whilst there is much to cause regret and even 
disappointment to those who are their truest 
friends, yet there is no little from which to draw 
hope. No other people ever had more disad- 
vantages to contend with on their issue into 
freedom. They were seduced, deceived, mis- 
led. Their habits of industry were destroyed, 
and they were fooled into believing that they 
could be legislated into immediate equality 
with a race that, without mentioning superiority 
of ability and education, had a thousand years' 
start of them. They were made to believe that 
their only salvation lay in aligning themselves 
against the other race, and following blindly 
the adventurers who came to lead them to a new 
Promised Land. It is no wonder that they com- 
mitted great blunders and great excesses. For 
nearly a generation they have been pushed along 
the wrong road. But now, in place of political 
leaders who were simply firebrands, is arising 



RECONSTRUCTION 277 

a new class of leaders, who, with a wider horizon, 
a deeper sagacity, and a truer patriotism, are 
endeavoring to establish a foundation of moral- 
ity, industry, and knowledge, and upon these to 
build a race that shall be capable of availing 
itself of every opportunity that the future may 
present, and worthy of whatever fortune it may 
bring. 

Many of the baleful fruits of reconstruction 
remain among us. Inability to divide freely on 
great public questions is a public misfortune. 

Obedience to Law is one of the highest qual- 
ities of a people, and one of the first elements 
of national greatness. However strong the ne- 
cessity may appear, Law cannot be overridden 
without creating a spirit that will override Law 
— a spirit which is liable to end by substituting 
for Law its will, and by confounding with right 
its interest. 

Among the baleful fruits is whatever fraud 
or evasion has appeared in the electoral system 
in any part of the South. In old times this 
evil was not known among the people of the 
South. Fighting the devil with fire may be the 
only effective mode of such warfare; but fire 
is a dangerous weapon to use under any circum- 
stances. 

Much has been said recently on the subject 



278 THE OLD DOMINION 

of lynching in the South. It is not too much 
to say that nearly every black victim of lynching 
and nearly every victim of that person may be 
set down to the not yet closed account of Re- 
construction. This, too, was a crime which in 
old times was scarcely known in the South. 

Among the better signs is the increasing feel- 
ing that it is best, on the whole, to leave every 
section to work out its own problems. Many 
years ago Mr. Seward said of the Negro race 
"They will find their place; they must take 
their level. The laws of political economy will 
determine their position and the relation of 
the two races. Congress cannot contravene 
those." 

Congress attempted to contravene them; but 
though for a brief period it appeared to have 
succeeded, the lapse of time has shown its fail- 
ure. It might as well have attempted to con- 
travene the law of gravitation. 

That intelligence, virtue, and force of char- 
acter will eventually rule is as certain in the 
States of the South as it is elsewhere; and every- 
where it is as certain as the operation of the law 
of gravitation. Whatever people wish to rule 
in those States must possess these qualities. 
Whatever people wish to rule there must 
profit by the rigorous lessons of the Recon- 



RECONSTRUCTION 

struction Period, when the South proved that 
she could survive even that. 

All this is now matter of history. The fierce 
passions of that time have almost, or quite, 
burned out. Even the memory of the enforced 
humiliation through which the people of the 
South passed is blimted by the passage of time, 
by the ever-increasing friendliness between the 
sections, which grows steadily under the in- 
fluences of a greater community of interest, a 
better understanding of each other, and a wider 
patriotism. The old life of the South, of the 
kind which made it distinguished, has more or 
less passed away; a new life, and possibly one 
that embraces a larger section of the people in 
its advantages, is taking its place. A more 
practical spirit is growing up, prepared to util- 
ize present conditions, and avail itself of all the 
material advantages that may be offered. The 
waste and the anguish of that time have long 
since been passed to the account of profit and 
loss, which only the historian or the student vent- 
ures to open. Many of the old houses which 
were the chief charm of the South went down 
under the ploughshare of Reconstruction. The 
people who made them and gave them their 
sweetness have passed or are passing away. 

One riding through the stretches of country 



2 8o THE OLD DOMINION 

where the fields have reverted to forest, or are 
worked by the small-cropper, can form little 
idea of the time when they were a part of a wide 
and well-tilled domain which supported the 
whole population of a teeming plantation. He 
might imagine as well that the quiet, grizzled 
farmer whom he sees in the field or meets on 
the road, in friendly intercourse with some 
dusky neighbor, once fought in battles that 
marked the high tide of Anglo-Saxon courage, 
or rode with a band of night-riders, resolute to 
withstand for his race those who threatened it, 
even though they were backed by the dread 
power of the United States. 

The present generation is, as is, of course, 
every generation, the product of heredity and 
environment. Its members are said to exhibit 
qualities which were once wanting, or which, if 
they existed, were despised; but, in reckoning 
their virtues, a deeper student is likely to con- 
clude that the best that is in them is the inher- 
itance from their fathers: devotion to duty, the 
sense of honor, and a passion for free govern- 
ment. 



VII 
THE OLD DOMINION SINCE THE WAR 



" ' The Virginian ? What is he good for ? I always thought 
he was good for nothing but to cultivate tobacco and my grand- 
mother,' says my lord, laughing. 

" She struck her hand upon the table with an energy that made 
the glasses dance. ' I say he was the best of you all.' " — Thackeray. 

' I A HE traveller to-day who takes a run 
■*• through Virginia on one of the roads 
which cut across her from Washington to the 
south or southwest gets a very inadequate idea 
of that which is in fact the Old Dominion, for in 
localities throughout this section, poor as it ap- 
pears, lie some of the best farming-lands in the 
State — the lands, in fact, which once made her 
wealthy; and much besides her lands enters into 
that which is the Old Dominion. 

Virginia is, in the speech of her people, 
divided geographically into sections. 

Of these sections the richest, and by far the 

most beautiful, are "the Valley" and "the 

Southwest," whilst the oldest and the best known 

281 



282 THE OLD DOMINION 

are "the Tidewater" (including "the South 
Side") and "the Piedmont." 

The mountains, once inaccessible to the outer 
world, are rich enough in iron and coal to attract 
the attention of Northern investors and to draw 
capital almost unlimited, and sundry railway lines 
recognizing their future, have penetrated them, 
placing alike their ore-filled ranges and their fer- 
tile valleys in direct communication with the outer 
world, and opening the way for enterprise and 
capital to make this long-closed portion of the 
Old Dominion one of the great manufacturing 
centres of the country. A trip down the Valley 
of Virginia or across the rolling Piedmont will, 
especially in the summer, well repay the trouble, 
though one should never leave his car; for there 
are few more beautiful sections of this country 
than that from the Potomac to the Cumberland 
Mountains. 

The idea, however, which one gets from his 
car-window in passing through eastern Virginia 
will be very incorrect. 

From Washington to Petersburg the railway 
passes along the former army-track; from Peters- 
burg to the southern border it is in what was 
known years ago as the "Black Belt," and 
neither section has yet fully recovered. 

This region, now so largely grown up in forest 



SINCE THE WAR 283 

or left as "old fields," was, before the war, filled 
with comfortable homesteads and well-culti- 
vated farms. It was here that much of the early 
history of "Old Virginia" was enacted. From 
this region sprang that wonderful body of great 
men who during the Revolutionary period and 
for long afterwards gave the Old Dominion the 
title of Mother of States and Statesmen. A 
single county produced George Washington and 
all the Lees. In one room of the Lee mansion, 
Stratford, were born two Signers of the Decla- 
ration of Independence and Robert E. Lee. 
Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and John Marshall 
were from the Piedmont, a little nearer the Blue 
Ridge; Patrick Henry and Henry Clay came 
from the same county, lower down. Even now 
the region through which the road passes conveys, 
with its leagues of forest, but an inadequate idea 
of the life within it. To know this one must leave 
the train and strike out into the country. There 
he shall find Virginia. It is true he will fre- 
quently find the lands poorly cultivated, if not 
poor; he will find old homesteads dishevelled 
and worn, and he will find the old houses, the 
home of charming hospitality and refinement, 
sadly dilapidated and unfurnished. He will be 
struck by the apparent want of things to which he 
is accustomed elsewhere, and for the possession 



284 THE OLD DOMINION 

of which ready money is needed; but in a little 
time he will forget this; he will be in an atmos- 
phere which will soothe his senses and lull him 
into a state of rare content, and he will become 
aware that there is something even amid this sim- 
plicity which he had not before discovered, a cer- 
tain restful feeling with which the external is in 
harmony, and in which it is well with the spirit. 
Assuming that he was not in a Pullman — for 
all Pullmans and all their passengers are alike — or 
is not simply passing over like a bird of passage, 
he has discovered that he is in a new region, or, 
more accurately, a new environment, from the 
time he crossed the Potomac. The low, soft, 
slow speech, with its languid, long vowels and 
neglected final endings, has caught his ear, and 
he listens to it as music without trying to follow 
the words. There is a difference not only in the 
manner, but in the matter. There is a difference, 
too, not very marked at first, but still perceptible, 
in the dress. The people all seem to know each 
other, and they talk with easy familiarity of per- 
sonal concerns as members of one family. The 
conversation is more personal for that reason, 
the tones less repressed. The women will ap- 
pear less expensively dressed. A man will 
probably not notice this; for they will be gen- 
erally prettier than those he left the other side 



SINCE THE WAR 285 

of the bridge, and they will have something 
about them — an air, a manner, a something 
which will be more attractive. Among the 
older persons, men and women, he will note a 
gentler air than he has seen on the other side. 
They will in a way be more individual, too; there 
will be individualities of dress. He will see more 
men offer seats to ladies, and more as a matter 
of course. He will be surprised to see how many 
get off at Alexandria. Should he, however, 
stop there, and be so fortunate as to know some 
of his fellow-travellers who have got off, he will 
discover that the view of the town which he has 
had from the car-window gives but an indifferent 
idea of the place itself. He will find it old, it is 
true, and bearing unmistakable marks of the ab- 
sence of the wealth which has made the glitter- 
ing Capital on the other side of the Potomac; 
but the want of money is not poverty, and the old 
age is not decrepitude. The streets until just 
now were paved in the old-fashioned way with 
cobble-stones, which looked strange to one who 
had been rolling through the asphalt avenues of 
Washington; the houses are often antiquated, 
and sometimes out of repair, but there is some- 
thing impressive in it all. There are no marble 
palaces on the street corners, but the old square 
houses with their classic porticos, on the streets, 



286 THE OLD DOMINION 

or set back in the yards amid the old trees, are 
homes, not mere monuments of wealth and 
pride; the stain on them is that of time and of 
the elements, not a chemist's concoction; and 
they have sheltered through generations a pure, 
kindly, and home-loving people. The splendid 
marble shaft that towers to the memory of Wash- 
ington is on the other side of the river in the city 
which bears his venerated name, and which is even 
a more splendid monument than this to the great 
Virginian; but the old church where he met his 
neighbors and worshipped God and the civiliza- 
tion from which he sprang are in Alexandria. 
It was on this side of the river that he learned 
the sublime lessons which have made him the 
foremost American and the greatest citizen that 
the world has known. Down the broad river only 
a short distance is the home where he lived as a 
Virginia gentleman, and the simplicity of which 
he adorned with the elegance of a noble life. 

As soon as we reach the old town we are on 
historical ground. The house where Braddock 
rested when the young Virginian who was to be 
known as the Father of his Country was his 
volunteer aide is still shown, and the road that 
leads away towards the west is still called 
"Braddock's Road," after the brave but ill- 
fated British general. Here, too, British troops 



SINCE THE WAR 287 

landed to ravage when the city across the river 
was but a village; and here in the civil war came 
the first army which invaded Virginia to march 
on Richmond and end the war during a summer 
holiday. Away to the westward, only a little 
distance, is Bull Run, where the summer-en- 
campment idea was so terribly destroyed, and 
here the shattered army returned to prepare 
for war in earnest. From here to Culpeper and 
to Petersburg lies the way that the armies took in 
campaign after campaign, and this explains in 
part the appearance that the country still pre- 
sents. This region was, to use the old phrase, 
"swept by the besom of war," and the besom of 
war sweeps clean. Time not only repairs the rav- 
ages of war and heals its physical wounds, but it 
heals the wounds of the spirit as well. It takes 
time to do so, however, and the length of time re- 
quired is proportioned to the severity of the inju- 
ries. Thus, the country here has not yet recovered. 
In the lapse of years men forget the conditions 
that once existed. When the war had been going 
on three years there was not a fence and scarcely 
a tree left standing from Alexandria to Freder- 
icksburg. When the war closed, from Alex- 
andria to Danville, almost on the North Caro- 
lina border, was little more than a waste. In 
portions of the counties of Culpeper, Fauquier 



288 THE OLD DOMINION 

and Prince William there was hardly a house 
left standing within five miles of the railway on 
either side, and a bill was introduced in the 
Legislature empowering the railway company to 
buy the lands within five miles on either side. 

As the road turns south it shortly reaches 
again the noble Potomac, and for many miles 
follows its winding marge, with the bluff's of 
Maryland rising bold and blue on the other side 
of the broad stream. When it touches the river, 
however, it has left in the angle it has made, 
Mount Vernon, the home of George Washing- 
ton, and Gunston Hall, the home of George 
Mason, who drew the Virginia Constitution and 
the Virginia Bill of Rights, among the noblest 
papers ever drawn by man. Then, after a run 
across the same poor-looking country, the train 
suddenly crosses a high bridge over a small river, 
with a hamlet on the near side and a town on 
the other, in a plain between the river-bank and 
a line of semi-circular hills. The little village 
is Falmouth, where George Washington went to 
school. The town on the other side is Freder- 
icksburg, and the heights which bend around 
it are the far-famed Marye's Heights (pro- 
nounced Maree, from the old Virginia family 
whose residence crowned them). It was up 
these heights that Meagher's brigade charged 



SINCE THE WAR 2 8 9 

time after time, to be swept back by Lee's line 
with a loss of seventeen hundred in fifteen min- 
utes, and on the plain below men were mowed 
down like grass. The country all around here 
has been a battle-ground, for this is Spottsyl- 
vania, where much of the war was fought. To 
the westward a dozen miles lies Chancellorsville, 
where Stonewall Jackson, after one of the most 
brilliant military movements ever conceived, 
which only genius could have planned and only 
genius could have executed, fell at the age of 
thirty-nine with his fame established. Not a hun- 
dred yards from the railway a half score miles 
below Fredericksburg, in a garden, stands the 
little quaint house in which he died one Sunday 
morning, alternately giving orders to forward his 
infantry to the front, and whispering of passing 
over the river to rest under the shade of the 
trees. 

A singular circumstance has recently come 
to light. On a part of the battlefield of Chan- 
cellorsville have been discovered the site and 
remains of Governor Spotswoods' furnace, the 
first iron furnace ever established in America. 
The old race has been traced, the foundation of 
the old stack uncovered, and the beginning of 
that industry which is now said to control gen- 
eral commerce has been laid open to the sight. 



2 9 o THE OLD DOMINION 

Only a short distance to the south lies the 
country not inaptly called the Wilderness, but 
back a little along the rivers are many fine farms 
and pleasant sections. 

The valley of the Rappahannock was in the 
old times a famous grain-region, and some of 
the finest plantations in Virginia still lie there 
around the old colonial mansions which shel- 
tered in the past the great Virginians. 

Fredericksburg itself was formerly well-nigh 
unique among the towns of Virginia. The 
gentry generally lived in the country on their 
plantations, but in Fredericksburg there were 
many of that class who kept town -houses. 
Washington's mother spent her declining years 
here, and the little old house where she lived still 
stands, with its quaint roof and its garden 
stretching around it as when she received, 
flower-pot in hand, the nation's benefactor, 
Lafayette, "without the parade of changing her 
dress." Fredericksburg gave to the country 
three of the most noted men who have honored 
our navy; for here lived, from the age of thirteen 
Paul Jones, that "foreigner of the South" who, 
with the Bonhomme Richard on fire and sinking, 
replied to a demand to surrender that he was 
just beginning to fight, lashed the Serapis to 
her, and forced her to strike her colors; and 



SINCE THE WAR 291 

here were born Lewis Herndon and Matthew 
F. Maury. Some of the old mansions still 
stand embowered in trees, impressive as in 
the old days when they were the homes of 
wealth and ease as well as of elegance and 
refinement. 

A picture of the town recalled by memory rises 
before the writer when it was very different from 
its present placid condition. It is as it looked 
forty-eight hours after the great battle when for 
days and nights it had been in the focus of the 
fire of two armies. It was whilst the heroic dead 
were being buried under a flag of truce, and, once 
seen, its appearance could never be forgotten 
— the battered and riddled houses; the dug-up 
and littered streets with raw earthworks thrown 
across them, on which groups of children had 
planted little Confederate flags, whilst they 
played at levelling them with fire-shovels; the 
torn gardens; the shattered fences, behind which 
men had poured out their blood like water; the 
long, red trench on the common where the Path 
of Glory ended; the roadways filled with broken 
vehicles and fleeing refugees. All combined to 
leave on the memory the ineffaceable picture of 
a bombarded town. 

Some fifty miles further on, across an unend- 
ing battle-field, is Richmond, the capital of the 



2 9 2 THE OLD DOMINION 

Old Dominion, and during the war the capital 
of the Confederate States, about which the war 
surged for four years. 

As the train runs out on the high bridge 
which crosses the James, and one sees the his- 
torical river boiling beneath it over its granite 
ledges, with the beautiful city spread out for 
miles along its curving bank, and with Belle 
Isle in the middle, and Manchester on its further 
side, he must agree that it was a wise man who 
selected the spot for a city, and that he had an 
eye for the picturesque as well as for the ma- 
terial advantages of a location. He was Colonel 
William Byrd, one of the old Virginia grandees 
— a wit, a humorist, a colonial Councillor, a man 
of affairs, and the Virginia author of greatest 
note during her colonial history. He wrote the 
"Trip to the Mines," which contains in side- 
lights the best picture of life in the Old Domin- 
ion that illumines her colonial period. His de- 
scendants in Virginia are numerous, and many 
of the Virginia families trace back to the founder 
of her capital. 

He laid it off at the falls of the James, the 
river on which his own beautiful home, West- 
over, one of the handsomest types of colonial 
architecture remaining, was situated, a score or 
two of miles lower down; and, sorrowful to re- 



SINCE THE WAR 

late in this advanced age of the world, he estab- 
lished a lottery to dispose of his lots. The pi; 
had already been long known. Christopher New- 
port, Admiral of Virginia, and her good angel, 
planted a cross on an island here as long ago as 
Whitsunday, 1607, when he explored the James to 
its falls. Here Nat Bacon, the Rebel, had a place, 
and Bacon's Quarter Branch perpetuates the 
memory of the spot where the young planter had 
his plantation, little knowing of the fame that 
should come to him when he struck the firsr 
armed blow on American soil for constitutional 
rights. 

The Falls of the James stretch in a reverse 
curve for about seven miles, boiling over gran- 
ite ledges and slipping between islands cov- 
ered with birch, sycamore, and willow, which, 
although several railway lines occupy the banks, 
are as wild and beautiful to-day as they were 
when Indians hunted upon the wooded bluffs 
which hem them in. All old travellers unite in 
their praise. They might have extended their 
eulogies to the whole river; for, from its source 
among the blue Alleghanies to where it widens 
into Hampton Roads, it is not only the most 
historical river in this country, but is one of the 
most beautiful. 

It may be that nativity in Virginia and many 



2Q4 THE OLD DOMINION 

years residence in Richmond have inclined 
the mind of the writer to idealize the city's love- 
liness, yet he knows no city in the United States 
more beautiful. It is not that the houses gen- 
erally are handsome, but there are sections of 
the city where the yards, filled with trees, look 
like bowers, and the public squares are among 
the most beautiful in the country. "The Capi- 
tol Square," with its leafy slopes, its fine old 
Capitol lifting itself on its eminence with the 
simple grandeur of an old temple, and with its 
broad walk, with the splendid Washington 
Monument at one end, and the impressive old 
"Governor's Mansion" at the other, is per- 
haps the prettiest park of its size in the country. 
It is certainly this to a Virginian; for many proud 
or tender associations cling about the place. 
For a hundred years and more the city has been 
associated with all that Virginians are proud of. 
In old St. John's Church assembled the great 
Virginia convention which prepared for the pub- 
lic defence and led the way to the Independence 
of the Colonies. Here in Richmond sat the 
great Convention for the ratification of the Con- 
stitution, when Kentucky was a district of Vir- 
ginia; here have assembled her law-makers, her 
jurists, and all that have contributed to make 
the Old Dominion renowned and great. Here 



SINCE THE WAR 295 

met, year after year, the Old Virginians, with 
their wives and daughters, to enjoy the gay life 
of the capital of the Old Dominion, which they 
adorned by their presence and made memor- 
able by their genius. Here sat and deliber- 
ated the Secession Convention during the pe- 
riod when Virginia stood as the peace-ma kef 
between the two sections. Here, upon the 
President's call for troops, she finally declared 
her decision to secede from the Union. Here 
Lee received the command of the Virginia 
forces, and here he was appointed later to tin- 
command of the armies of the Confederacy. Here 
the Confederate Government passed its brief but 
strenuous life, and from here the Southern side 
of the war was fought. To seize Richmond the 
armies and energies of the North were directed, 
and for it they strove. Whilst it stood the Con- 
federacy stood, and it fell only when the South 
was exhausted. 

The country to the south of Richmond is like 
that to the northward; for it went through the 
same experience — if anything, worse. For not 
only has war been here, but after the war it under- 
went an evil from which the other section of the 
State was exempt. This was the Black Belt, and 
on it rested the heaviest burden any portion 
of Virginia had to bear. Before the war this 



296 THE OLD DOMINION 

section of Virginia, the South Side, was, perhaps, 
the most "comfortably off" of any in the State; 
there were more negroes here than elsewhere, 
and though the lands were not so fertile as those 
in the Valley, or generally even as those in the 
Piedmont, they were readily susceptible of im- 
provement, and were in a state of good cultiva- 
tion. Negro emancipation meant necessarily a 
change in this; but Negro domination meant its 
destruction. 

It was of this section in old times that George 
W. Bagby used to write his charming sketches, 
such as " My Uncle Flatback's Plantation/'* with 
touches of delicious local color, and with a deli- 
cate sentiment that made the reader homesick 
to get out under the trees and roll on the grass. 
Yet, some years back, I have oftener than once 
gone from Richmond almost entirely across this 
section, and outside of the towns never seen 
a single farm-animal — this in a region once 
filled with well-stocked and well-cultivated farms. 
Even then there were good sections back from 
the railways, and some of the most beautiful 
plantations in the State lay along the rivers; but 
these were at that time the exception. My Uncle 
Flatback's sons were dead — one of camp-fever, 

* Writings of Dr. Bagby: Whitlet and Shepperson, Richmond, 
Va., 1884. 



SINCE THE WAR 

one at Gettysburg, and one in an unnamed skir- 
mish; he himself slept in the old garden, when 
the roses and hollyhocks used to bloom, and his 
sweet daughters used to walk with their lovers 
in the old times; his plantation was let or de- 
serted, and the home with its cheer and charm 
was gone. War and its followers had eaten 
up the land. 

As stated, the lands along the railways in 
this part of Virginia give but an indifferently 
true idea even of the soil and its culture; and 
what is viewed from a car-window gives .none 
of the life which is the real Virginia. Poor as 
the soil appears on the ridges, it is kindly. It 
is easily susceptible of improvement, and pro- 
duces grain and tobacco of a peculiar quality. It 
was in this eastern part of Virginia (in Hanover) 
that the most famous race-horses of the country 
were bred in old times, such as "Boston," "Nina," 
" Planet, " "Fanny Washington," and many 
others of the great plate-winners. Of late years 
"Fanny Washington's" great son "Eolus" and 
his wonderful progeny have justified the boast 
of the old Virginians that this is the home of 
the thoroughbred. Virginia colts have won 
the great "Futurity," and in one year four 
out of twelve Virginia entries stood the train- 
ing and ran in the race, a fine test of bone, 



298 THE OLD DOMINION 

muscle, and bottom. Virginia hunters are so 
highly esteemed that they are eagerly sought 
after. 

Perhaps, nowhere in the country has the 
external and material been less indicative of 
the internal or spiritual than in the Old Do- 
minion. The life has been so sequestered, so 
self-contained, and the people have been so in- 
different to public opinion — at least, of all public 
opinion outside of Virginia itself — and have cared 
so little for show, that from the outward appear- 
ance a wrong conception has often been drawn 
of that which was within. Back from these 
ridges along which the railways run, on the 
rivers and little streams which empty into the 
rivers, are peaceful valleys filled with sweet 
homesteads, where the life flows on as calmly 
and undisturbed as the limpid streams which 
slip so silently between their mirrored willows. 
This, after all, is Virginia — the Virginia which 
is not seen any more than the air or the perfume 
of the fields is visible to the eye, but which is 
felt and known through its silent influence. In 
those secluded homes, under their great oaks, 
far from the bustle and din and strife of the world 
grew and ripened the Virginians who made the 
Old Dominion what she was: mother of States 
and of Statesmen. 



SINCE THE WAR 299 

11 

To understand Virginia and the Virginians 
it is necessary to know something of her history. 
That furnishes the key to much of their char- 
acter. It entered into the Virginian's life, in- 
fluenced his tendencies, and tempered his spirit. 
He was proud of being a Virginian, and he 
never forgot the fact. To him the Old Domin- 
ion was what she had appeared to the earliest 
chroniclers: "Most plentiful, sweet, wholesome 
and fruitful of all other." It was, indeed, a 
picturesque history that lay back of him; be- 
ginning to come into being like a glimmering 
dawn, with the mighty figures of great Elizabeth 
accepting the name bestowed as an honor to her 
Majesty, and Sir Walter Raleigh, courtier, soldier, 
discoverer, statesman, historian, poet, Admiral 
and Shepherd of the Ocean, proud to style him- 
self, "Lord and Chief Governor of Virginia." 

She had not been won easily. Many had 
"come to leave their bodies in testimonie of 
their mindes"; but in the Virginian's mind the 
prize had been worth the striving for. He 
loved Virginia with a passionate love. Abana 
and Pharpar were better than all the waters of 
Israel. The James was greater to him than 
Jordan, Tiber, Nile, or Thames. It was on 



300 THE OLD DOMINION 

the James, in Virginia, that Anglo-Saxon civil- 
ization on this continent first found a lodgement. 
It was here that it reached its highest develop- 
ment. The Virginian knew, as no one else did, 
all the attendant history of sorrows and joys, 
hardships and triumphs. He treasured the pict- 
uresque history of the bold chevalier Captain 
Smith, a story which, notwithstanding all his de- 
tractors, survives to-day with the romance of the 
old paladins. He knew him and he believed 
in him. To him he was what he was to his con- 
temporaries: "deare noble captain and loyal 
hearte." He always thought of him as a Vir- 
ginian, and was proud to claim him. He be- 
lieved that Pocahontas saved his life, and he 
held her in high esteem. Any reflection upon her 
offended him as if she had been a member of his 
family, however remote. In any event she was 
a benefactress of Virginia, and that called forth 
his gratitude. 

The life in the Old Dominion was not unlike 
that in England, and the Virginian treasured 
the idea of resemblance. Shakespeare had been 
inspired by an event in her romantic story to write 
the "Tempest," and, before her limits were cur- 
tailed, Ariel inhabited the airs that blew upon 
her shores. During all the colonial period this 
resemblance to the mother country had been 



SINCE THE WAR 301 

warmly cherished. The conditions were such 
that the rich planters with their indented ser- 
vants and slaves had advantages which brought 
them great wealth, and they knew how to enjoy 
it. They patterned their life on that in Eng- 
land; built large country-houses on English 
models, and established "their fine seats upon 
the rivers"; kept their coaches and four; enter- 
tained with a lavishness and cordiality which 
established the custom of hospitality with the 
authority of a law; bred horses which rivalled 
the cracks of the turf in the old country; mon- 
opolized the offices of honor; passed laws recog- 
nizing "quality"; and endeavored, as far as 
they might, to perpetuate old England in the 
Old Dominion. 

But so far from their love of England imped- 
ing their development along their own lines, it 
fostered it. They cherished their resemblance 
to England so warmly that they never admitted a 
difference, and always insisted on equal rights. 
Sir Walter Raleigh's charter had guaranteed 
them "all the privileges of free denizens and 
natives of England," and they never ceased to 
be jealous of them. Within twelve years from 
their first coming they had a General Assembly, 
with every freeman having a vote for the repre- 
sentatives. "The Virginia courts are but a sum- 



3 02 THE OLD DOMINION 

mary way to a seditious parliament," the Span- 
ish ambassador had told James, and it proved 
to be measurably true. One of the things this 
first elective Assembly of Burgesses did was to 
claim of the company at home a right "to al- 
low or disallow their orders of court, as his 
Majesty had given them power to allow or dis- 
allow our laws." This was but the beginning 
of a long and continuous line of claims of right, 
insistence on which has become a fixed char- 
acteristic of the Virginian, and on which he has 
been ready always to stand to the end. If the 
royal governors held their prerogatives in high 
esteem, the people held their privileges in no 
less esteem. They or their rulers named their 
rivers after kings and queens, and their boroughs 
and counties after royal princes and princesses, 
so that the chronology of the settlement of Vir- 
ginia may be told by the geographical names; 
they declared their loyalty with piled-up assev- 
eration, but they never forgot their chartered 
rights. The General Assembly addressed James 
in terms of worship extraordinary to a republi- 
can ear of this year of grace, but when the King 
sent over commissioners to inspect their records 
they refused to exhibit them, and when their clerk 
furnished the commissioners a copy the Virginians 
put him in the pillory and cut off one of his ears. 



SINCE THE WAR 303 

"Whole for monarchy," one wrote of Vir- 
ginia when the struggle came between the down 
and the people — whatever she is "for" she is 
always "whole for" — but she was even more 
whole for her rights; and though, as old Beverly 
says, she was the last to give up for the King 
and the first to assert his restoration, and though 
in his defeat she offered an asylum to his dis- 
comfited followers, she stood up boldly against 
Charles I., and refused her sanction to his 
claims to the tobacco monopoly. When Charles 
II., to whom she had offered a crown when he 
was a fugitive, attempted to invade her priv- 
ileges and violate her grants, she grew ready 
for resistance. When his Governor refused her 
rights she actually burst into revolution, and, 
under command of "Nat Bacon the Rebel.'' 
stormed and took the colonial capital; the young 
commander capturing, it is said, the wives of 
the chief supporters of the Crown, and stand- 
ing them in white aprons before his men whilst 
he threw up his breastworks preparatory to his 
attack on Jamestown. Later on new elements 
came into the Dominion. Stout Scotch-Irish 
settlers filled up the Valley, and made it a differ- 
ent type social and religious, whilst similar po- 
litically. They were Presbyterians, and they 
made a new force in the colony. They made 



3 04 THE OLD DOMINION 

the valley a garden, guarded and extended the 
frontier, worshipped God agreeably to the dic- 
tates of their own consciences, and became, with 
another infusion of religious refugees who came 
later — the Huguenots — a new element of force 
in the Old Dominion. 

From all these different elements came the 
Virginian character, a character with some 
singular contradictions in detail, and yet with 
certain general basic principles which govern 
it and give it its form and force. From it 
came in one generation that extraordinary body 
of men who did so much in the Revolution 
and afterwards, to create and establish this 
nation. 

The master of characterization, the pro- 
found student of life, the ablest analyst of our 
time, knowing the Old Virginia life, deemed 
the Old Dominion a worthy refuge and home, 
in his later years, for Henry Esmond. If there 
is one character described in the literature of 
our race by which one would have the race 
judged, it, perhaps, is the scholar, the soldier, the 
courtier, the man, the gentleman, Henry Es- 
mond. Recognizing the virtue of the old Vir- 
ginia life, the great novelist deemed Virginia the 
most fitting place in which to have Colonel Es- 
mond end his days and leave his blood, and the 



SINCE THE WAR 

sequel to the greatest romance of our rime he 
entitled, "The Virginians." 

The elements of character which the Vir- 
ginian of the Revolutionary time inherited from 

his father he transmitted to his children. 

At the close of the Revolution new condi- 
tions had supervened, new energies were de- 
manded, and those men were most successful 
who could adapt themselves best to the new con- 
ditions. Out of this came men like John Mar- 
shall, James Madison, James Monroe, and 
John Randolph of Roanoke, who were still the 
leaders in the country, as the older generation 
had been before them. 

Virginia entered upon her new career with a 
full recognition of her commanding position. 
The people had become more homogeneous. 
The participation by all in the war and in the 
subsequent creation of the new Government 
had done away with privilege, and opened tin- 
way to all. Still, the great leaders were in tin 
prime of their intellectual vigor, and they neces- 
sarily still led. The social order was too rirnilv 
established to be radically changed at once even 
by the sterling republicanism which had super- 
vened, and the most republican leaders along- 
side of their strong republicanism maintained 
a social order with many aristocratic featui 



306 THE OLD DOMINION 

They disestablished the Church and did away 
with primogeniture, but still built their seats 
on the loftiest hills, and maintained their es- 
tablishments as nearly like those of the English 
gentry as they might, Jefferson himself levelling 
the top of a mountain for his mansion. It was 
one of this class (John Page, of Rosewell) who 
in Congress prevented the stamping of the Pres- 
ident's head on the national coin, and had sub- 
stituted therefor the figure of Liberty with her 
cap on her pike. 

The Negro question about this time began to 
assume new importance, and thenceforward it 
was to be an even more potent factor in all that 
related to the life of Virginia. Virginia was the 
first State to declare the slave-trade piracy, and 
in 1832 she came within one vote of abolishing 
slavery. The opening up of the West had 
brought in new elements, political and social. 
Many of the hardiest of Virginia's sons had 
gone with their wives and children across the 
mountains to settle in Kentucky and Tennessee, 
and had taken with them the political tenets of 
their mother State. Perhaps, in no other States 
did politics ever stand so closely related to the 
social life as in Virginia and Kentucky. It as- 
sumed a personal character, and families were 
divided by their political faiths. In Virginia 



SINCE THE WAR 307 

it even entered into the considerations govern- 
ing matrimonial alliances. Fathers interposed 
objections to their sons paying addresses to girls 
in families of a different political faith. 

Virginia was not even before the war one of 
the rich States like the cotton and sugar States 
of the South, but she was at least fairly well <>h\ 
In those States were many splendid fortunes; 
in Virginia there were but few of these; but there 
were many persons who were "comfortably oft." 
They were still almost entirely an agricultural 
people, and naturally the large fortunes lay in 
the rich grain-producing belts along the low 
grounds of the James, the Rappahanock, the 
Roanoke, etc., or in the fertile valleys. Here 
the bare-armed wheat-cutters en echelon cradled 
the wheat that fed the country when the great 
Western grain sections and the reaper which 
mows them, and which was invented by a \ 11- 
ginian, were alike unknown. 
5 The history of the commonwealth had left 
its strong impress on the Virginians, and they, 
perhaps, still were more like the English than 
were the people of any other State. They con- 
tinued to pattern their life on that of the old 
country, even after they had lost the conscious 
knowledge of the source from which it came. 
Their social customs were continued. Hiey 



3 o8 THE OLD DOMINION 

could no longer send their sons to English uni- 
versities, but as substitutes they maintained 
William and Mary College in the Tidewater, 
and founded the University of Virginia in the 
beautiful Piedmont, Jefferson devoting the end 
of his life to the establishment of the latter, 
and drawing with his own hand the plans for 
its charming and classical structures. They 
preserved the language they brought over, and 
English travellers remarked on the purity of 
their English. It is said that Thackeray stated 
that he heard the purest Saxon English in Vir- 
ginia that he had ever heard. Freeman and Mat- 
thew Arnold are quoted to the same effect at a 
later time. Be that as it may, the Virginians pre- 
served through all their republicanism a strong 
feeling, almost like kinship, towards the Eng- 
lish. Many of the old families kept up a sort of 
association with the old country; filled their 
shelves with English books; took English re- 
views, and kept abreast of English politics. 
When the war broke out, it was to England 
that they looked for recognition and support, 
and the failure to realize that expectation was 
scarcely enough to shake their confidence or 
change their sentiment. 

The resemblance in the life was not merely 
fancied — in the tone at least. It has been called 



SINCE THE WAR 309 

feudal and aristocratic. This is, perhaps, nor 
the most accurate nomenclature. The old 
feudal features had in the main passed away 
with the stanch republicanism that succeeds! 
the Revolution. The aristocratic features were 
so modified by the introduction of the same 
factor that what remained was rather a feeling 
than a condition. There were classes, it ifl 
true, and there was, perhaps, a stronger class- 
feeling than existed anywhere else on this Bide 
of the water, unless it was in South Carolina; 
but the class distinction was not based upon 
those elements which marked it elsewhere. 
Birth counted for something, it is true— that 
is, that a man's forefathers had been gentle- 
men before him— but it was not sufficient to 
keep him in the pale if his personal character 
and address were not up to the standard, and 
it was not requisite to admit him if they were. 
What was demanded was a certain personal 
standard of education, address, and character. 
The pedigrees, at best, in the great majority ol 
cases, ran back only to some one who had been 
distinguished in Virginia's history, and it more 
were asked it was comfortable to believe that 
it might easily be extended back further with- 
out making the attempt to verity it. Wealth 
meant absolutely nothing. 



3 io THE OLD DOMINION 

The standard was personal. Ties of blood 
were recognized to an extent which has excited 
the astonishment of the outer world, and cousin- 
ship was claimed as long as the common strain 
could be traced. It was felt that the relation- 
ship gave a claim, and the claim was ever 
honored. 

The Virginian still kept open-house, as his 
fathers had done before him, and hospitality 
was the invariable law of every class. It had 
been noted since long before the Revolution. 
English travellers recorded how gentlemen sent 
their servants to invite strangers to make their 
houses their homes, and how the poorer people 
gave up their beds to make them comfortable. 
This custom continued. Relatives and friends 
"came by" with their carriages and servants, sum- 
mer after summer, on their annual passage to 
the White Sulphur Springs, or to stay as long as 
they liked, assured that with their hospitable 
hosts it was always, "the longer the better." It 
was, indeed, a purely pastoral life that they led. 
The large planter on his great plantation with 
scores of slaves, and the poorer one on his smaller 
farm with but a few servants, differed only in 
degree. The life was substantially the same on 
both estates. The character of the masters was 
the same: proud, self-contained, brave, generous, 



SINCE THE WAR 311 

tender when undisturbed, fierce when aroused, 
loving Virginia idolatrously, and knowing little 

of and caring less for what was outside of h< 
his chief glory was that he was a Virginian, 
Money made no difference to them or in them* 

There were handsome estates along tin ri 
— old colonial mansions with their wings and "of- 
fices," terraced gardens and imposing gates, along 
the Potomac, the lower James, the Rappahan- 
nock, the York, etc.; fine houses of a Greek, 
Gothic, or Italian style on the upper James, the 
Staunton, the Dan, and in certain portions of 
the Piedmont and the Valley, etc.; but in the 
main the houses were plain, unpretentious 
wooden structures, with additions put on from 
time to time as the family increased or the de- 
mands of hospitality required. Often they had 
been built for overseers' houses, with the inten- 
tion of building better mansions as means in- 
creased, but the families increased more rapidly 
than the means. In these unpretentious hou 
the old Virginian made his home. Here he 
governed his plantation, raised the wheat, corn, 
and tobacco which made the Old Dominion 
wealthy; entertained like a gentleman whoever 
came within his gates; shot partridges (styled 
simply "birds") in the fall, fox-hunted in the 
winter, and at Christmas gathered his children, 



3 i2 THE OLD DOMINION 

his relatives, and his friends about his hearth, 
and with bowls of apple-toddy and eggnog, amid 
holly and mistletoe, with peace on earth and 
good-will towards men, dispensed an abound- 
ing hospitality, worshipping God and loving 
his fellow-men to the best of his ability, having 
wealth, without riches and content without dis- 
play. 

This was the life in Virginia when the John 
Brown raid shocked her from the Potomac to 
the North Carolina line. It was "a fire-bell 
in the night." Every man sprang to atten- 
tion, and "every mother clutched her babe 
closer to her bosom." 

When the law was vindicated, Virginia settled 
down again, but there was no longer any possi- 
bility of the old repose. When the convention 
called to consider the question of secession 
assembled, the great majority were Whigs, un- 
doubted Union men. They resisted secession, 
with the hope that they might effect a reconcili- 
ation, and almost as late as the eve of attack 
on Sumter rejected it by a vote of more than 
two to one; they appointed peace commissioners, 
and used every effort to preserve peace. 

Then came the President's call for troops, 
and, finding that she was to be invaded and 
must fight on one side or the other, Virginia 



SINCE THE WAR >,, 

stood by the Constitution and retired from the 
Union. 

The outer world has never appreciated the 

spirit in which the South went to war. Ir \ 
like a conflagration. After it started, the people 
outstripped the leaders. Gray-headed men * ho 
had been the stanchest maintainers of the I fnion 
enlisted and marched to the Peninsular under 
Magruder or to Manassas under Beauregard 
Boys ran away from home to join the army; 
women cut up their gowns to make flags, and 
their under-clothes for lint and bandages. 

The slavery question, which had been prom- 
inent in the previous agitation, now, fused in 
the furnace, passed completely out of sight, and 
the battle-cry was the Invasion of the South. 
With this the entire population of old Virginia 
rallied to the standard as one man. 

It was in this period, and that more terrible 
one which followed it, that the people of Vir- 
ginia showed their character. They accepted 
victory and defeat with equal constancy. No 
success elated them unduly. No disaster cast 
them down Their zeal never flagged, their en- 
thusiasm never wavered. The exactions of war 
sapped their strength and engulfed their prop- 
erty. There were not men enough left at home 
to bury the dead, and women not infrequently 



3 i4 THE OLD DOMINION 

were called on to perform the last sad sacred offices. 
Rich women sent their sons to fight, gave up their 
jewels to help the cause, or sold their lands to 
reinvest in Confederate bonds or gunboat-stock. 
Poor women wrote to their husbands that they 
were starving, but that they must stand to their 
duty. This was the spirit all the way through. 
They never doubted, never flagged. Subsequent 
events showed that wisdom would have pointed 
to a different decision; but he would have been 
rash who would have dared to hint of making 
peace on any terms less honorable than com- 
plete independence. The failure of the Hamp- 
ton Roads Conference was based on the uni- 
versal sentiment of the people. 

The condition of the city of Richmond at 
that time will give an idea of the condition of 
the country as well. At first only the excite- 
ment of war was felt, only its pomp was seen; 
but in a little time its graver side was under- 
stood, and when McClellan's army was within 
sight of the city's steeples the terrors of war be- 
gan to be recognized. "The Seven Days' Bat- 
tles around Richmond " were fought within 
sound of the church-bells of the capital, and 
the roar of the artillery floated in at her win- 
dows, and drew throngs out into the streets and 
gardens. There was no panic as some have 



SINCE THE WAR ., 5 

stated, only a just realization of the gravity of 
the situation. Women nerved themselves for 
the struggle. Soldiers, already wounded, crawled 
from their beds and made their way to the battle- 
fields to die. 

It was a terrible time indeed. None knew 
what the next day might bring forth. A 
general and his staff breakfasted at a country- 
house just outside of the city. Within three days 
an ambulance passed through the place on irs 
way from a battle-field with three of the gay 
breakfast party in it in their coffins. When 
McClellan fell back the city reacted from the 
tension, and social life once more began. A 
memoir of General Pendleton, Lee's Chief of 
Artillery, written by a lady who was present, 
gives a picture of the time. " Hearts grew light," 
it says, "at the knowledge that Richmond was 
safe and free, and could pet and praise her de- 
fenders to her fill; eyes smiled through their tears 
upon dear ones still left to them; and strangers 
and friends coming daily to look for others re- 
ported 'wounded' or 'missing' were received 
with cordial and limitless hospitality. The city 
kept 'open house' for every one who had fought 
or prayed for her safety." 

After this thousands flocked to the city, 
"refugeeing" before the invading armies, until 



316 THE OLD DOMINION 

its population trebled and quadrupled. Under 
such circumstances amusement is necessary, and 
life in the capital grew gay. The entertain- 
ments were termed "starvation parties," be- 
cause there was nothing to eat. Provisions were 
too high to be wasted at a mere social enter- 
tainment, and even if money had not been 
wanting, the necessaries of life were too precious 
to be squandered in revelling. A breakfast 
came to cost more than a year's pay of a private 
and a month's pay of a captain; a pair of boots 
cost a thousand dollars; coffee, tea, sugar, and 
such articles came to be things unknown. Yet 
the life was not without its compensations, even 
its joys. There was a pleasure in self-sacrifice 
where all were vying with each other. Love- 
making went on all the more prosperously that 
young Mars who courted in a captain's bars 
might lay a colonel's stars or even a brigadier's 
wreath at his lady's feet before the campaign 
was over. When Petersburg was in a state of 
siege the favorite ride was across a bridge which 
was under Federal fire, and horseback rides in 
the autumn afternoons were all the more ex- 
citing in that a dash across the open space might 
be followed by a shell crashing across behind 
the horses. 

It was not only provisions, but everything, 



SINCE THE WAR < I; 

that was wanting. The dearth of materials ex- 
ercised the ingenuity of people, and called forth 
all their cleverness. Old garrets were explored, 
old trunks were ransacked, and everything avail- 
able was utilized. Hats were plaited of wheat- or 
oat-straw by the girls; old silk-stockings were 
made over into gloves; ball-dresses were fash- 
ioned from old lace-curtains and ladies' slippers 
were made from bits of old satin which might 
have been remnants of ball-dresses worn by the 
fair wearers' great-grandmothers at Lady Wash- 
ington's levees. 

When Lee surrendered at Appomattox the 
war ended. 

The home-coming of the disbanded remnants 
of the Southern armies was the saddest hour 
her people had ever known. Up to that time 
Virginia and the South at large had not dreamed 
of final failure. 

At first, the news of Lee's surrender came 
borne, so* to speak, by the winds, so vague was 
the whispered rumor, then taking palpable 
shape, as it were, as weary stragglers passed 
along the country*roads, stopping in at the naked 
farms to get a meal, if there were enough left to 
feed a hungry man. Then little parties passed 
by with details of the surrender that no longer 
left any room for even the faintest doubt. And 



318 THE OLD DOMINION 

after weary days — it might be fewer or more — 
days in which it was not known whether loved 
ones might not have been captured or killed in 
the last engagement, they came home foot-sore 
and broken, dragging themselves along the 
cannon-worn roads they had marched down so 
bravely four years before, and, flinging them- 
selves into the arms of weeping mothers or 
wives or sisters gathered to receive them, sur- 
rendered for the first time to despair. 

Even then they had no thought of what the 
immediate future had in store for them. The 
conditions which existed and the period which 
ensued were utterly without precedent. The 
Negroes took prompt advantage of their new 
freedom, and almost without exception went 
off, some openly, some by night — those that 
went openly declaring that "the word had come 
from Richmond for them." Generally speak- 
ing, they returned home after a brief and 
sad experience of travel and sojourn among 
strangers. 

For a time there appeared danger of some 
friction under the evil influence of that species 
of visiting adventurer wittily termed, from the 
smallness of his personal belongings, "the 
carpet-bagger," but good sense and the good 
feeling engendered by long association between 



SINCE THE WAR 

the races prevailed after a while, and the peril 
passed away. 

The soldiers returning from the army found 
Virginia almost as war-worn as themseh 
In many sections the country was swept 
clean, and the disorganization of labor and the 
depletion of teams had prevented the propel 
preparation of a crop. The horses which the 
soldiers had brought home from Appomattox 
were not infrequently the chief dependence for 
a new crop, and before the huzzas over the 
turning armies of the Union had died away in 
the North, the soldiers of the other army which 
had held them at bay so long were working in 
the fields, trying to build up again the waste 
places of their States. There is scarcely a pro- 
fessional man over the age of fifty to-day who 
did not work at the plough during those first 
years after the war. 

The complete prostration of Virginia — in- 
deed, of the whole South — at the close of the 
war has never been fully apprehended by the 
outside world. It was not only that property 
values had been swept away, but that everything 
expect the bare land from which property values 
can be created had been extirpated. The entire 
personal property of the State had been destn >yed ; 
the laboring class of a country dependent upon its 



3 2o THE OLD DOMINION 

agriculture had been suddenly changed from 
laborers into vagrants, with no property to make 
them conservative and no authority to hold them 
in check. Their dependence was suddenly shifted 
from their former masters to strangers, whose in- 
direct, if not their direct teaching was hostility 
to the former owners. The country was left 
overwhelmed with debt, with nothing remain- 
ing from which the debts could be paid. It is 
difficult to conceive of this even as applied to 
a small section, but when it embraces a great 
territory covering a dozen great States, with 
their entire population of many millions, the 
mind refuses to take it in. Yet such was the 
case at the South. 

It was amid such conditions as these that 
Virginia and the other Southern States ad- 
dressed themselves to the new life. 

For a time there was a condition which was 
peculiar. The old life survived for a period 
in a sort of after-glow; the people thought they 
could reconstruct the shattered fragments and 
live it over. They undertook to reorganize their 
Governments and their life. The one was as 
vain as the other; but, at least, the dignity and 
courage with which they set about it call forth 
unqualified admiration. Certain laws were 
passed looking to the control of labor. The 



SINCE THE WAR >.., 

whites believed them necessary, as will as wi 
The military rulers viewed all such action with 
possibly not unnatural suspicion, and assumed 
a fuller control than ever. Whatever disputes 
arose between whites and blacks were reviewed 
by the military authorities. 

The fact that the land had survived gave it 
a peculiar if not a fictitious value. It was esti- 
mated and appraised highly. Money was bor- 
rowed on it to restock and plant it, and the old 
life went on for a while almost as before, as a 
wheel continues to turn with its own pro- 
pulsion even after the motive power is removed. 

For a time, under the reaction resulting from 
the wear and tear of war, the spirit rebounded. 
After the fatigue of war the meanest home was 
comfort, and the life was almost gay, even amid 
the ruins. The South had been overwhelmed, not 
whipped, and the indomitable spirit of her people 
survived. So the young soldiers patched up the 
broken farm-implements, hitched up their thin 
army-horses, and worked at their crops. They 
worked like laborers, but they were not mere lab- 
orers. They kept ever in view the fact that they 
were more than ploughmen. Classical schools 
sprang up again almost as soon as the war closed, 
and colleges opened with fees fixed at the lowest 
conceivable sum, and board provided at the low- 



322 THE OLD DOMINION 

est possible figure. Young men poured in when 
they were too poor to pay even that and had to 
mess as they had done in the army. They went 
to town and took positions as watchmen, brake- 
men, street-car drivers, foremen in factories, 
anything that would enable them to support 
themselves and those dependent on them, and 
would aid them in educating themselves. There 
was no feeling of indignity, no repining. A man 
who had hitched the horses to a gun under fire 
and brought it off under a storm of shot and 
shell could drive a street-car without chagrin. 
He had expected to be a brigadier-general then; 
now he expected to be some day president of 
the line. 

It was a strange spectacle, the people com- 
monly supposed to be the proudest in the land 
engaging in the work of laborers and losing 
no caste by it. When night came they dressed 
up in their best, whatever that was, and went to 
see the girls, the fair sweet, brave young gentle- 
women of the South, or, with their eyes fixed on 
some profession, they devoted themselves to study, 
and in the evenings one might find visiting in 
the parlors, with that old-time courtesy of man- 
ner which had made notable the Virginia 
gentleman, the same men to be seen in the day 
at the plough or on their engines. 



SINCE THE WAR 

The girls were not less brave than the men. 
They accepted and married them without a 
dollar, and, with a sublime faith in their loven 
which was a happy auguxy of the future, went 
with them to live in the old broken farm-hou 
or in upper stories in town, planted Bowers, hung 
baskets in their windows, and made their horn 
fragrant with sweetness and content. 

Then came the Reconstruction period. The 
Negroes were enrolled by the carpet-bag lead 
in what was known as the Union League, and 
were drilled in political antagonism to the whites. 
And pandemonium came. 

The six or eight years of carpet-bag rule were 
the worst that the South has ever known. It is 
the writer's belief based on serious study ol 
the facts that the Southern States were poorer 
when these years ended than when the war 
closed. However theorists may regard it, it \\ as 
an object-lesson which the Southern States can 
never forget. The conditions then existing para- 
lyzed every energy but one, and withdrew the 
South from the common movement of progress. 
The States which went through it could think only 
of existence; they had to struggle for mere life. 
Even after these States obtained control of their 
governments, the conditions were for a while 
such that there could be no advance. It was 



324 THE OLD DOMINION 

at this time that South-Side Virginia suffered 
most. She was in the " Black Belt," and the 
incubus upon her was a burden which kept her 
down. 

The Negro question was a theory or a senti- 
ment with the outside world; with the South it 
was and still is a vital fact. Only time can solve 
it. It has already solved some of its problems. 
Before it did so, however, much injury had been 
done Virginia and the other Southern States, 
from which they are but now recovering. The 
Virginia Negroes, however, either because of 
their close relations with their masters or be- 
cause of other conditions, appear to be of a higher 
grade generally than those of States further 
South, and the relations between the races is 
in the main amicable and pleasant. 

Virginia has always been a great colonizer, 
and her sons have gone forth from her to build 
up with their energy the great States which lie 
to the south and west, and to strengthen them 
with their brain and character. They are to 
be found in every Western and Northwestern 
State, where they began as cowboys on ranches, 
as mechanics in factories, as brakemen on rail- 
ways, clerks in law-offices, anything that was 
honorable, and have worked themselves up to 
the highest positions of trust and responsibility. 



SINCE THE WAR 325 

They have filled every position, from thai of 
chief executive of their States down, and al- 
ways with honor. But this has been at a terrible 
loss to the old mother State, and the pride in 
her sons' success has had something of pain 
that they no longer live within her borders and 
strengthen her with their strength. 

The disorganization of the laboring class in 
Virginia and the condition of her transportation 
facilities, coupled with universal lack of means 
at that time, almost destroyed her agriculture. 
The Negro as a slave was an excellent laborer; 
as a freeman, at least under conditions which 
have existed in the country, he is not. Under 
compulsion he works laboriously, but other- 
wise not steadily, and generally only when he is 
obliged to work. Cincinnatus is the only re- 
corded instance of a statesman who was also a 
good ploughman. At the ordinary cost of corn 
and bacon in Virginia, a man can for 525 ob- 
tain meat and bread enough to give him three 
meals a day for the whole year. 

The old planter-system proved generally 
wholly unsuited to the new conditions, and 
under the continued depression of agriculture, 
and such agricultural products as it had been 
the custom to raise in Virginia, it almost en- 
tirely disappeared. When labor only gave a 



326 THE OLD DOMINION 

half-year's work for a full year's hire, only that 
man could afford to farm who was independent 
of labor. Thus, the old planter-class gradually 
passed away, the young representatives of it 
going to cities and seeking other fields of enter- 
prise for the application of their faculties, and 
their place has been taken by the small-farmer, 
who works at the plough himself, or who hires 
a few "hands" to work under his own eye. 

Few outside of the South dream of the priva- 
tions which the old planter-class have gone 
through in these years. That they have en- 
dured in silence is their best testimonial. A 
few years ago it was not unusual to find in old 
neighborhoods in certain sections the best 
houses shut up and the farms abandoned or let 
to tenants at a rental which was merely nominal 
— homes which had once been the centres of a 
life as elegant and charming as ever graced any 
people. Some places were held on to, but went 
steadily down year by year, there being abso- 
lutely no money to keep them up. Yet, through 
all the poverty there remained just that some- 
thing which preserved in them without money 
that which distinguished the Virginia homes 
when they were the seats of ease and elegance, 
and about which the light of romance yet lingers. 

There life still is based on the old foundations 



SINCE THE WAR 

of purity and peace. Preserved from the ma- 
terialism of the present, it still keeps tin- sim- 
plicity of the past. Hospitality and tin- do- 
mestic virtues yet survive, and notwithstanding 
some changes, the old standards of gentility and 
righteousness of life still stand. One may 
drive through the country, from one end of Vir- 
ginia to the other, and never pay a cent; and if 
he were to stall or break down in the road, tli 
is not a Virginia farmer who would not cheerfully 
turn out of his bed to help pull him out. 

The conditions have of late been changing. 
Virginia, instead of being, as the cant phrase 
went, "a good country to come from," has be- 
come once more a good country to come to. Her 
advantages of location and climate have ever 
been recognized, and of late other advantages 
also have been discovered. Her transportation 
facilities have been steadily improving, her min- 
eral resources have attracted the attention of 
capital, and, being examined, have been found 
to be wonderful both in quantity and quality. 
Her coal produces the highest speed in the ocean 
racers, and her iron brings the best prices at tin- 
Northern forges. 

The improvement in her transportation fa- 
cilities was the beginning of her in-w era; hef 
timber regions have been penetrated, and have 



328 THE OLD DOMINION 

proved a great field for new enterprise. Un- 
happily ignorance of the value of her forests 
has led to their devastation and is steadily 
tending to their destruction. The judge of one 
of her southwestern counties, being shown in 
Chicago a few years ago suites of walnut furni- 
ture as something remarkable, said, "Young 
man, in my country we make fence-rails of wal- 
nut." The development of her mineral resources 
has given an impetus to manufactures, and fac- 
tories have been and are being established; 
villages are springing up on all sides and are 
becoming towns, whilst the towns are growing 
into cities. 

Richmond has long been a manufacturing 
city. Over one-fourth of her entire popula- 
tion is engaged in manufactures, and some of 
the largest manufactories in the country are 
there. 

The diversity of life in the Old Dominion 
may be illustrated by the fact that one of the 
greatest ship-yards in this country, and one 
of the greatest winter health-resorts — those 
at Newport News and Old Point Comfort 
respectively — have been established only six 
miles apart, at the mouth of the great river 
on which our race first found a lodgement in 
this country, and the names of both places 



SINCE THE WAR 

are memorials of the hardships which the t 
settlers endured. 

If at one time the interest in Virginia 9 ! min- 
eral resources grew to excitement and tin pi 
ress ran into a "boom," it was hut the natural 
and common result of the conditions which 
were suddenly disclosed, and though inexperi- 
ence and folly ran away with the movement, 
and wound up, as every one in his sober sen 
knew it must end, yet the general result * 
growth; the advance never wholly receded. What 
were believed to be incipient cities are, at least, 
growing villages, the conditions which first caused 
the excitement still exist, and the progress is 
going on steadily, on an ever firmer and firmer 
basis. The beauty of that section of Virginia 
cannot be overstated, and it seems to the writer 
destined to become one of the most prosperous 
and wealthy regions in the entire country. 

It is, however, not only the southwest that is 
now improving; other sections as well arc in the 
movement, and after the long night the day stems 
at last to have broken. Even the poorest sect* m 
is beginning to advance. One large portion <>t 
it, lying within the influence of the Chesapeake, 
has been found admirably adapted to truck farm- 
ing, and now furnishes fruits and vegetables for 
the markets of Baltimore, Philadelphia, Ne* 



330 THE OLD DOMINION 

York, and Boston weeks before they can ripen a 
hundred miles further inland; other portions 
produce bright tobacco which brings many times 
the price of the common leaf; in yet others, other 
resources are being developed. The farmer has 
learned in the school of experience where to let 
out and where to take in. He no longer con- 
fines himself to cereals and tobacco. Stock is 
being raised more generally than before and 
agriculture is placed on a more scientific basis. 
A gauge of Virginia's advance may be found 
in the fact that whilst other classical schools and 
colleges continue to maintain their number of 
students, the University of Virginia, the pride of 
the State, has doubled her number within the last 
few years. The country is once more filling 
up. The cheapness of the lands, the salubriety 
of the climate and the charm of the life 
have arrested attention, and the beautiful old 
country-houses are being bought up by North- 
erners of capital, or as Virginians have made 
money in cities the old instinct has awakened, 
and they are returning to the country, buying 
and fitting up country-places in which to bring 
up their children and spend their declining years 
amid scenes associated with their happy youth. 
The climate is attracting those who can no longer 
stand the rigors of a Northern winter, and many 



SINCE THE WAR •>, 

new settlers are seeking homes in the OKI Do- 
minion, where wealth is not needed, and con- 
tentment yet has its home. The old country 
places are thus being opened again, and the old 
life pure, sweet, and gracious which made het 
distinguished in the past is beginning under n 
conditions to be lived once more in the Old 
Dominion. 



VIII 

AN OLD NEIGHBORHOOD IN VIRGINIA 

' I A HE old neighborhood in Virginia in which 
the writer was born and reared lies "in 
the forks of Pamunkey," in Hanover County 
— that county of fierce battles — just where the 
foothills of the Piedmont melt into the Tidewater 
region, about thirty miles to the northwest of 
Richmond. The road which used to connect it 
with the outer world followed "the ridge" be- 
tween two small streams, known as Newfound 
River and Little River, which flow into the 
Northanna, and with the Southanna make the 
historical Pamunkey, and no streams cross it for 
a distance of at least twenty-five miles. A few 
miles away, on either side, the roads that run 
from Richmond to the mountains wind along 
other ridges between the rivers, and down these 
roads in my boyhood used to go the great covered 
wagons, with their jingling bells. 

It was one of the many similar neighborhoods 

that existed throughout Virginia, each of which 

332 



AN OLD NEIGHBORHOOD 

constituted a sort of little separate world all to 
itself. On either side of the main road fof ten 
miles to the old, gray-brick, colonial church the 
"Fork Church" — with their mansions sir back 
on hills amid groves of oak, hickory and locust, 
and separated so far that no man could "hear 
his neighbor's dog bark," lay the plantations of 
gentle-people, all of whom were more or l< 
allied with the gentle-folk of Eastern Virginia, 
and more remotely with a portion of the gentry 
of England. Farther back on other roads la) 
generally a somewhat different class, though there 
were gentle-people there, too, while interspersed 
among them were the little homesteads of those 
who were known as the "poor whites." Some 
of these were tidy and well-kept, while others 
were mere cabins of the most squalid kind, a sad 
testimonial to the evil effects of a slave system 
which cut off the free laborer from the oppor- 
tunity to work and develop. To some of these 
places, among them the writer's home, the title- 
was that of grants from the English Crown, while 
to others it was simply that of an immemorial 
possession, dating back to the time when the 
region was the frontier. 

Among the population may still be found the 
traits of frontiersmen with an instinct for wood- 
craft and an absence of the commercial instinct; 



334 THE OLD DOMINION 

which, possibly, comes from the generation that 
drove the Indian back to the mountains, which 
on clear days may be faintly seen upon the blue 
rim of the western horizon. 

The region, secluded as it appears, with its 
deep forests and its lonely roads, is not lacking 
in historical interest. Not far below lie the 
birthplaces of Patrick Henry — "the Trumpet of 
the Revolution" — and of Henry Clay, "the Mill- 
boy of the slashes. " A mile from the writer's 
home, on a part of the old Nelson domain which 
is still in the family, died General Thomas Nel- 
son, Jr., a signer of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence and commander of Virginia's forces at the 
siege of Yorktown, his home, where, learning that 
General Washington had ordered his mansion to 
be spared if possible, he offered a prize to the 
first gunner who should hit it, and, according to 
an old tradition, paid it to a young French ensign 
named Bernadotte, who later became King of 
Sweden. A few miles below is "Scotchtown," 
a quaint, gambrel-roofed house where Dolly 
Madison was reared, and where Patrick Henry 
for a time made his home, while farther off* 
towards the lower end of the county lie Me- 
chanicsville, Cold Harbor, Gaines's Mill, and 
many others of the bloody battle-fields of the 
campaigns of 1862 and 1864. 



AN OLD NEIGHBORHOOD 

When the writer can first remember, 
regions in the world would have appeared ! 
likely than this to be the scene of historical events. 
Set back among the forests, far from tin current! 
of modern life, and divided from the outside world 
by the little streams which for long distal* 
flowed only a few miles apart; accessible only 
roads which during a considerable part of the y< ai 
were well-nigh impassable, the life was as quid 
though it had been caught in an eddy, and old 
habits of thought and old customs of speech and 
of life survived for generations, almost without 
change. Only one gentleman in the countv had 
ever crossed the ocean, and not a great mam- 
had ever crossed the Potomac River. The soli- 
tary mail-rider passed up the road twice a week, 
and it was a part of the duty of the children to 
meet him at the "big gate" and get the mail. 
If more or fresher news were wanted, the rail- 
way was only seven miles away and one train 
passed noisily each way once every day. 

From books, however, the people were famil- 
iar with England, and to a considerable extent 
with France and Italy, and, possibly, they were 
more interested in the former country than in 
any parts of the United States beyond the con- 
fines of Virginia. There was an absence of 
wealth in the sense in which the term is und< 



336 THE OLD DOMINION 

stood now, but there was much wealth in that 
better sense of the term in which it is used in 
the old liturgy, and a part of the family-prayers 
used every morning was, to be granted, "minds 
always contented with our present condition. " 

The plantations, which contained anywhere 
from three hundred to a thousand acres, were in 
the main well tilled, and wheat, corn and tobacco 
were raised in such quantities that there was 
abundance not only for whites and blacks, but for 
the constant stream of visitors who enjoyed the 
hospitalities of that most hospitable region. If 
the time had passed when gentlemen, as in a 
former generation, sent their servants out to the 
main road to watch for the casual traveller and 
invite him in, the latch-string still hung always 
outside — literally so at the writer's home — and 
the houses were filled to overflowing with those 
who, with or without claim, came to partake of 
that bounteous entertainment. 

Half the life of the boys was spent on pallets 
made up on the floor, and at seasons of reunion, 
such as Christmas and other festive occasions, 
there was scarcely an available spot from garret 
to basement which was not utilized. In one fam- 
ily of which I knew, the master and mistress al- 
ways retired at Christmas to the attic, so full was 
the house. It was a season so given up to jollity 



AN OLD NEIGHBORHOOD 

and cheer that the hiring-contracts of lervantl 
ran from New Year only to the "Christmas holi- 
days." Its joys and its sanctities have BUTvi 
all the manifold chances and changes (.four time, 
and every one still knows that "Christmas comei 
but once a year." 

That this hospitality was not always appre- 
ciated by the guest is illustrated by a store which 
the writer used to hear in his youth of one who 
after a visit asked the loan of a good horse to 
carry him on to his next stopping place, a town 
which lay at a considerable distance. The host 
accordingly lent him his horse and sent alom 
Negro boy to bring the horse back. As, how- 
ever, after some days the boy did not return, 
some one was sent to hunt him up. The mes- 
senger finding him demanded to know why he 
had not returned with the horse. 

"'Cause dat gent'man done sell de horse," 
was the reply. 

"Well, why didn't you return and say - 
demanded the messenger. 

"Hi! He done sell me, too," said the boy. 

But this story, if not apocryphal, certainly 
represented the rare exception, for the claims 
of hospitality were quite universally recognized, 
and any wayfarer, whatever his condition, was 
at liberty to put in at the first "big gate" which 



338 THE OLD DOMINION 

struck his fancy, and was sure of a welcome and 
gracious entertainment so long as he chose to 
remain. The only call upon his purse was that 
of paying on his departure a quarter to the ser- 
vant who brought his horse, or who handed him 
his julep, and unless some of the old letters ex- 
aggerate conditions, these "vales" were not 
always easy to meet. Every gentleman was sure 
to do this, and the servants were quite likely to 
gauge a gentleman by his readiness to follow this 
amiable custom. " Mr. Spectator," was as much 
a familiar in these households as in those for 
which Sir Roger was originally painted. And 
there were guests who, like Will Honeyman, 
spent their lives in visiting from place to place, 
and who, like him, made full return by their 
handiness in contributing to the enjoyment of 
their friends and entertainers and their readi- 
ness to do them favors in all ways within 
their power. There were others who, having 
spent the night under some hospitable roof, 
found the entertainment so much to their taste 
that they spent there the remainder of their 
lives. Of one such casual visitor I remember to 
have heard that regularly once a year he ordered 
his horse and then sadly announced to his host 
that he "feared he ought to be leaving." This, 
of course, the host naturally "regretted," and 



AN OLD NEIGHBORHOOD 

suggested that he need be in no hurry and hoped 
that he would remain longer; on which he regu- 
larly returned his thanks and accepted with 

graciousness for another year the renewed in- 
vitation. This was the very forge on which 
individuality was wrought. 

Here in their homely, rambling country hot! 
given to hospitality, lived a race sprung from <>hl 
English, Scotch and Huguenot stock, clearly 
patterning their lives on Plutarch's characti 
with a tempering of Christianity; simple, sine 
kindly and content with the blessing of Agar: 
neither poverty nor riches. 

It seems to have been imagined by the outside 
world that in this region the people were 1 
religious than in some other sections of the 
country; but the idea is either erroneous or else 
Piety must have reached elsewhere a degree of 
which the writer has never seen any sign. They 
were, indeed, the most religious people that he 
has ever known. In very old times, as we know, 
attendance on Religious Service was required 
by law there as elsewhere and was enforced by 
rigorous penalties; but in our time no such re- 
quirement was needed; everyone went to church 
by choice or habit. No Puritan Sabbath was 
ever spent under more rigorous and rigid regula- 
tions than the Virginia Sunday in old times. All 



340 THE OLD DOMINION 

secular pursuits and amusements were as abso- 
lutely interdicted as under the blue-laws of a 
previous generation. And this rigorous observ- 
ance of the Sabbath still remains a character- 
istic of the life, after it has been relaxed else- 
where. As a Northerner not long since observed, 
"It seems now to be no longer ' Puritan New 
England,' but rather 'Puritan Virginia." 

It may illustrate this sentiment to say that even 
now in the writer's old home family-prayers are 
held three times a day. Indeed, much of the 
social life still, as formerly, centres about the 
Church. And religion enters into the life of the 
people as hardly anywhere else that the writer 
has been. He has seen hay-harvest go on in 
New England on Sunday as well as on other 
days; but has seen in Virginia fields of ripe 
tobacco caught and destroyed by a sudden frost 
because the owners were not willing to cut on 
Sunday. 

It may be as was once observed by the writer's 
father, that "the Fourth Commandment in our 
region was violated not so much by the breaking 
of the Sabbath as by breaking the other six days 
in the week." 

There was but one man in the neighborhood 
who was openly an unbeliever, and I remember 
that he was looked on by us youngsters with 



AN OLD NEIGHBORHOOD H , 

somewhat the same awe with which a man con- 
demned to death is regarded. By the elden 
he was, if reprobated for his tenets, esteemed for 
his kindness, and possibly was considered a 
proper subject for proselytizing. He not infre- 
quently came over to spend the day ar mv old 
home, and, as on such occasions, he was sur- 
stay over at least one service of family-prayers, 
he used to take a paper and retire to the \ 
anda till what he termed "the superstitious 



rites" were over. 



Years later the writer fell in with him once 
on the cars when he was in extreme old age. 
With his long, white hair and beard, he looked 
like a hoary old prophet. He at once began to 
inquire cordially after the various members of 
the family. "The best people in the world;" 
he declared them, "but eaten up with supersti- 
tion." Finally he asked after one who was a 
young clergyman. "I hope he is prospering?" 

"Yes, sir." 

"Well, present my regards to him. Tell him 
I say he has selected the best profession." 

This began to look as though my grand- 
mother's prayers were meeting with some an- 
swer. But he continued: 

"Yes, he has secured to himself all the neces- 
saries of life and a great many of the Iuxuru * 



342 THE. OLD DOMINION 

In fact, my son, I am d — d sorry now that I did 
not turn my own attention to the ministry." 

And with this final shot he got off the train. 

In the matter of education the gentry were 
not behind those of the same class in any other 
part of America. Nearly all were college-bred 
men. As their fathers had been trained at 
William and Mary, so they in turn had for the 
most part either attended some Northern institu- 
tion or else had been educated at Jefferson's 
great foundation — the University of Virginia. 
Added to this they possessed good libraries; 
composed, it is true, of works somewhat anti- 
quated, but none the less valuable. The gentle- 
men nearly all had a fair acquaintance with 
Latin, and the ladies with French. And the 
one gentleman mentioned as having travelled 
abroad had written a translation of the poems of 
Ariosto. An admirable classical school, known 
simply as, " The Academy, "whose fame extended 
far beyond the confines of Virginia and drew 
students from many other States, existed under 
the direction of a noted teacher — Colonel Lewis 
Coleman, who subsequently became professor 
of Latin at the University of Virginia. Later, 
on the outbreak of war, with nearly the entire 
faculty and student-body, he went into the army, 
and fell at Fredericksburg. 



AN OLD NEIGHBORHOOD j4 , 

With regard to facilities for the education of 
other classes not so much can be said in prai 
There were a number of " old-field" schooll in 
the county, but they were mainly of that type 
which Colonel Richard Malcolm Johnson ha 
quaintly and delightfully portrayed in "Dub 
borough Tales," and little education was gotten 
from them. 

In our old neighborhood, however, was estab- 
lished a little free school, the only one in the 
writer's childhood in that immediate region. 
This small seminary, which belonged to the 
class known as "old-field" schools, was, as is 
still recorded on the painted sign above the door, 
established by a bequest made in 1844. by one- 
Aaron Hall, a small farmer, who left his entire 
estate "to educate the children of his poor white 
neighbors." In pursuance of his bequest a 
number of gentlemen were appointed trust 
A couple of hewn-log houses were built by "old 
Uncle Ralph," and "Carpenter William," the 
Negro carpenters from the writer's home, one 
for the school-house and the other for the 
teacher's dwelling; and there for sixty-odd yean 
Aaron Hall's beneficence has borne fruit. 

The total income was only about $250 per 
annum, but so well was the fund invested that 
when the writer's father, who was the treasui 



344 THE OLD DOMINION 

came home from Appomattox, though he had 
not a cent in the world, or a dollar's worth of 
property, except the two horses ridden by him- 
self and his servant, the little endowment of 
Hall's Free School was not only intact, but had 
increased in value. The learning imparted 
there was neither very broad nor very deep, but 
it served. Small as was its endowment and 
indifferent as was its teaching, the school was 
a little oasis in that section. The neighborhood 
about it showed as clearly the effects of its work 
as the sands of Arabia show the marks of a 
perennial fountain. The people about it, be- 
longing largely to the class whom Mr. Lincoln 
used to call "the plain people," have the stuff 
in them which, when called forth, has made the 
Anglo-Saxon race and given it its history. They 
have the good old English names — Stanley, 
Halloway, Askew, Lowry, West, etc. — and are 
pure Anglo-Saxon, with old English traits; speak- 
ing quaint old English. And fine features, and 
straight, clean-cut figures are not uncommon, 
for they are of good old stock. On the outbreak 
of war, they flocked into the army and made ex- 
cellent soldiers, and many a small household 
to-day counts its sons who died on the battle- 
field, or in the hospital. 

One of the causes which contributed to keep 



AN OLD NEIGHBORHOOD 

the old neighborhood so quaint and old-fash- 
ioned has doubtless been its remotem . r, ai 

least, the difficulty of access to it horn the out- 
side world. 

I once asked an old soldier who had been in 
Virginia all during the war, what had struck him 
most while in the South, and his instant reply 
was, "Mud! Mud! Mud !" It was, indeed, mud. 
Mud was at times worth to the South a hundred 
thousand men, for it held whole armies back. 
It is one of the memories of my childhood; 
for we went to church every Sunday irresp' 
tive of weather or of roads, and as "Trinity/ 1 
the nearer of the churches, was four miles off, 
and the other, Old Saint Martin's, known fU 
"the Fork Church," was ten miles away, we 
had abundant opportunity to know what mud 
means. When the roads became too bottoml 
for the ordinary teams, a pair of mules were 
hitched on in front of the carriage horses, and we 
went "just the same." How people who lived 
"on the road" stood such terrible highways i 
wonder of modern life. There were mud-hole. > 
that had lasted for generations. 

I once asked an old aunt what was the most 
vivid recollection of her childhood, and she 
answered promptly, "Being dressed in the car- 
riage on my way to see my grandmother." 



346 THE OLD DOMINION 

It is said that my grandmother three times 
a week took her children in the carriage to see 
her old blind mother who lived ten miles off. 
Some one explained the illegible handwriting of 
another member of the family by the fact that he 
had been taught to write in the carriage on these 
pious pilgrimages. However this may be, half 
of the life of a man was spent "on the road," 
and the roads were so incredibly bad that it 
would appear almost impossible that they should 
have been tolerated. Yet the standing order 
was under all conditions, "Plumb the track." 

At that time the road from our old home 
to the railway, like many of the Virginia roads, 
instead of taking even an approximately direct 
course, began by running in quite the opposite 
direction, and after a detour of seven miles 
reached the railway at a point which was really 
less than five miles distant from the starting- 
point. 

And when, as sometimes happened, the bridge 
across Little River, on this road, was washed 
away, it was necessary in times of high water, 
unless one were willing to swim his horse (which 
we sometimes did), to make a yet further detour 
by Honeyman's Bridge, which made the distance 
quite ten miles. Yet, all this time plantation- 
roads led through most of the plantations by the 



AN OLD NEIGHBORHOOD J4? 

"Horse-shoe Ford" directly to the station l< 
than five miles away. 

Now and then efforts were made to get a high- 
road "put through" from the back country to the 

station; but as often as there appeared a chai 
of success, the gentleman who owned the planta- 
tion lying on the railway would get in hi* car- 
riage and drive eight or ten miles around by 
Trinity Church to visit the worthy farmers whose 
places lay on the other side of the river, directly 
in the line of the proposed road, and explain 
them how much more important it was for them 
to have privacy than to have a public road to the 
station which would cutoff nearly two-thirds ot 
the distance. 

It was in part, doubtless, this difficulty 
access from the railway and in part the absence 
of water on the ridge-road that during the war 
forced the armies to march down other roads than 
this, and thus gave the neighborhood immunity 
from the visitation of the enemy except on an oc- 
casional raid. For, curiously enough, although 
the direct track of the armies, Union and Confed- 
erate, during two campaigns, passed across the 
county within less than a score of miles of the old 
neighborhood, and although the sound of the 
guns in almost every battle of McClellai 
Burnside's and Grant's campaigns was distinctly 



348 THE OLD DOMINION 

heard; although, indeed, the line of several raids 
lay within three miles of Oakland, and small 
bodies of troops belonging to raiding parties, 
were from time to time seen on the opposite hills, 
as it happened, no Union soldier during the 
war put his foot on our plantation. I remem- 
ber that this used to be attributed directly to my 
grandmother's prayers, but a wag once said that 
it was because the raiders were afraid my grand- 
mother would have prayers for them. 

Few persons passing by the quiet, little ham- 
let of Beaver Dam on the Chesapeake and Ohio 
Railway nowadays dream of the fact that the 
long, low, massive brick building which serves as 
a station and freight-house is more than a com- 
monplace railway station. Yet, at this point the 
old Virginia Central Railroad, the chief highway 
of transportation during the war from the rich 
regions of southwest Virginia and the Valley of 
Virginia to Richmond, ran nearest to Spottsyl- 
vania County, but a few miles away, and thus 
offered a continual temptation to the bold 
raiders of Hooker and Grant to strike for it by a 
dash around Lee's left wing and destroy, if pos- 
sible, his chief line of communication. And the 
temptation was not always resisted. 

Thus it was, that when the writer was a small 
boy, at times the glow on the near horizon to the 



AN OLD NEIGHBORHOOD 

northwestward told in vivid character! written 

on the evening sky of the raids around I 
army, lying between the Nor than na and the 
Rappahannock, and of swift dashes for the Con- 
federate Capital. Three times, as he- recalls, this 
glow came nearer than the long sickle-like iweep 
of the northern sky-line: on the occasions when 
Stoneman and Kilpatrick and Sheridan, riding 
hard for Richmond, struck the Virginia Central 
Railway and burned Beaver Dam Depot On 
such occasions there was always the excitement, 
delightful enough to children, of running the 
stock and the horses off to the woods for fear t! 
should be taken, and of hiding the silver. The 
custodian of these valuables was almost in- 
variably some one of the trusted old servants, 
and the writer personally never knew of the viola- 
tion of such a trust. 

Strangely enough, there was always some inti- 
mation beforehand that the raiders were coming, 
some vague rumor by the "under-ground rail- 
way." Such occasions were always of into 
interest to the boys, for it was likely to liberate 
us from school, and we were given the privifc 
of going over to see the soldiers pass. I hut, 
vivid memories remain of the raiders and <>t the 
Confederate cavalry which followed them up it 
seemed to us rather slowly— their roads mark* i 



350 THE OLD DOMINION 

generally by columns of dust rising high above 
the forests — with an occasional skirmish between 
rear and advanced guards, till at the proper point 
and time there would be a dash, and then the 
Gray line would stretch across the road and block 
the way. 

On one occasion, at least, the raiders de- 
stroyed at Beaver Dam several days' rations for 
Lee's army which had been brought from Rich- 
mond and stored there as a point convenient to 
his location in Spottsylvania County, ten miles 
away, and secure from just the sort of attack 
that destroyed them. It was when Sheridan 
made his dash for the Confederate capital in 
1864, when Jeb Stuart gave his life to head him 
off at the Yellow Tavern, almost in sight of the 
spires of Richmond. 

The writer well remembers going with the 
other boys, white and black, to the station the 
following day and the scene that presented itself 
— the yawning, fire-scorched walls of the massive 
brick structure that had been put up as a store- 
house for the supplies, and the long line of yet 
smouldering embers where the sheds had been, 
under which the coffee and sugar, flour, meat 
and sorghum barrels had been stored. What a 
waste it appeared! For flour and meat were 
scarce in private homes in that region about 1864 



AN OLD NEIGHBORHOOD 



53 



and coffee and sugar were inaccessible, and 1. 
the roads were filled with melted sugar and 
grease. The railroad for a quarter of a mile 

was a blackened curve, where red rails coiled and 
writhed in all sorts of contortions from tin t 
built on them. Our object was to collect cart- 
ridges from which to get powder and make ihoi 
for our fowling pieces, which consisted in parr of 
old abandoned muskets. We were a little thy 
of mingling with the Yankees. So, though th< 
never disturbed us, or did anything worse than 
question us and call us "little Johnnies," we 
usually kept aloof and looked at them from a 
respectful distance. 

There had been a little skirmish at B< 
Dam, and there were stacks of muskets which 
had been piled up and burned, covering a con 
siderable area, while near the fork in the road, 
a mile below, were two fresh-made graves; one, 
it was rumored, of a young officer of high rank 
it was even whispered of a brigadier— while under 
a booth of boughs in a fence-corner lay yet a third 
poor fellow, too badly wounded to be moved 
even to the nearest house. 

Several years later, just after the war, when 
the troops were stationed throughout the coun- 
try, and the Government was collecting the 
remains of its dead soldiers to be interred in the 



352 THE OLD DOMINION 

national cemeteries, the writer, as a little boy, 
piloted an officer of the company posted at 
Beaver Dam, with his resurrection squad, to the 
grave of one of these men who was killed on this 
raid. I recall that he offered me a greenback, 
which was declined with the design of showing 
him that I was a gentleman's son. 

The tramp home at night, after following a 
raid, was over roads thick and soft with the flour- 
like dust made by the march of regiments, 
marked by the trail of snakes and other wild 
things; through tangles of abatis thrown across 
the road to delay the pursuing force and through 
woods which were blazing with the fires that 
had been started and were sweeping through 
the timber. Looking back at it now it was 
weird enough, but at the time it seemed only 
natural. 

At the river, as the bridge was down, we all 
"cooned it," that is, crept across a great fallen 
tree which stretched from one bank to the other. 
I wonder now that we were not afraid, for, loaded 
down as we were with cartridges, had any one 
of us slipped off in the dark he would have gone 
to the bottom like a stone. Fortunately, we 
had the courage and unconsciousness of igno- 
rance. Now and then we would meet some 
servant who had been sent out to "look for the 



AN OLD NEIGHBORHOOD 

boys." No one appears ever to have dreamed 
that he might go off with the Yank. 

How the women managed to maintain re- 
plantations during the war is even yet a mystery. 
There were some twenty whites and fifty bb 
on our place, and so clean was the country swept 
for the subsistence of the troops thar often one 
of us boys has ridden behind our mother all d 
trying to get bread for next day. I recall one 
visit to the old infidel who has been mentioned. 
"Madam," he said, in answer to my mother*! 
application, "I have but two pieces of meat left, 
but you shall have one of them." And he calk-d 
"Lucy Ann," his cook, and made her get half 
his remaining store. Possibly the denial of 
Henly Doswell was better than some professions. 

It was at this same little station, Beaver Dam, 
that Stonewall Jackson disembarked his "loot- 
cavalry" from the trains when, having slipped 
away from the front of the enemy, he marched to 
face McClellan and astound Fitz John Porter, 
when he was thought to be held fast in the valley 
by Banks and Milroy. And by that station 
again, in furtherance of Lee's grand sn 
he passed as swiftly and as silently but a 
few weeks later, with that army, now "long 
familiar with the morning star," to slip through 
Thoroughfare Gap and strike Pope on the doubly 



354 THE OLD DOMINION 

bloody plain of Manassas when the latter thought 
he was safe below Richmond. 

The fame which Stonewall Jackson had al- 
ready achieved and the manner in which he was 
held by the Southern people at this time is 
illustrated by an incident which happened during 
this forced march from the victorious fields about 
Richmond to the yet more victorious field of 
Manassas. 

As Jackson with his staff was on this march 
riding through the old neighborhood some dis- 
tance ahead of his troops, he stopped at a 
small homestead on the road near the Fork 
Church and asked for water. The good wo- 
man of the house hastily brought a pitcher and 
drew a fresh bucket from the well. As the 
dusty and travel- stained leader was drinking, a 
member of his staff told her who he was. She 
said not a word, but when he had finished she 
took the pitcher and poured out on the ground 
all the water that was left. Then she said to the 
others: "Gentlemen, I will fetch you another 
vessel, for so long as I live no one else shall 
ever drink from this pitcher, which has been con- 
secrated by the lips of Stonewall Jackson. " 

The close of the war found the old neighbor- 
hood swept clean of everything. 

After the war there was a period of much 



AN OLD NEIGHBORS OD 

privation. Everything was gone I the 

land, and that for a time appeared valueh 
One old gentleman expressed something of tin- 
general view when he said to a Fed< ral oftii 
"If you had taken our land and left us our 
Negroes, we should have been much better ofi 
than we are, for we might have worked or lold 
the Negroes, whereas we can neither work the 
land, nor sell it." 

In fact, it looked for a time as though 
tion were not far off. The servants at t 
nearly all left and went to seek their forttin 
either about the camps, or in the cities. I hey 
appeared to feel that it was necessary to go off 
to have proof that they were really free. Some 
departed boldly with their effects packed in cai 
others slipped away in the night, unable to fa 
the ordeal of leave-taking. This condition, h- m- 
ever, did not last very long, as for the most j 
they soon came back, satisfied by a sharp if bi 
experience that they could do better with their 
own old masters than with strangers, and either 
settled on or near the old plantations. 

A tribute to the whole population of the 
neighborhood was paid once in the writer', pi 
ence by that fine old Virginian, «-< - 
Smith. At the close of the war, a re* 
ten thousand dollars was offered for his a PI m- 



356 THE OLD DOMINION 

hension, and although there was probably not 
half that sum in the whole county, he spent 
several months among the people, most of whom 
knew him, and many of whom were on the verge 
of starvation, with no more fear of being be- 
trayed than if he had been across the border. 

In the time of our dearth at Oakland the first 
aid came to us from Mrs. Dupont, of Delaware, 
the wife of that gallant Admiral who strove in 
vain to seize the Southern coast. The great box 
which she sent down contained not only neces- 
saries which were sadly wanted, but dainties 
which were the first that had been seen in that 
household within four years. After nearly forty 
years my heart always warms at that honored 
name. 

With the aid of "stay-laws" and under the 
spur of necessity an attempt was made for a while 
to resurrect the old life, or, at least, to reconstruct 
from its fragments something that might a little 
resemble it. It cannot, however, be said that the 
effort was wholly successful. Just as the "stay- 
laws" expired and litigation began for the collec- 
tion of old debts, the Reconstruction measures 
began to undermine the relation of mutual kind- 
liness which had ever existed between the old 
masters and servants and well-nigh destroyed the 
new labor system which had begun to grow up. 



AN OLD NEIGHBORHOOD 

One of the writer's memories of Lee's H 
house at Beaver Dam is of tin- first election un 

the Reconstruction system, where the V 
were marshalled by the United States officials 
and led up to vote for the first time, while the 
whites, disfranchised and angry, stood glowering 
and jeering by. 

Following upon this there was a period of real 
poverty, and, notwithstanding the efforts which 
were made, the old plantations which had been 
cultivated began to grow up once more in fori 
The writer's father, who had been a major in the 
Confederate Army, was a lawyer, and was en- 
abled by stinting to give his sons the benefit of an 
education, while his uncle, who had been a 
colonel of artillery, ran the plantation. But on 
many of the other plantations the families were 
not so fortunate, and until those who had been 
children during the war grew up, there was S 
period of real hardship. Happily, common mis- 
fortune had increased the feeling of neighborli- 
ness. The old home, like most others, arwa 
open to those who chose to come, had been during 
the war an asylum for all the family and Friends 
who were "refugeeing," and it always continued 
an asylum and refuge for the whole connection. 

For many years after the war it appeared as 
if the old neighborhood were doomed to a eon- 



358 THE OLD DOMINION 

stant decline. "Labor" became more and more 
" trifling." The young people of the better class 
nearly all left and went off elsewhere to seek 
their fortune, while it was some time before the 
body of the people awoke fully to the oppor- 
tunities presented to the small farmer. The 
land went down until it got to a point where it 
could get no lower, and it still can be bought for 
the worth of the timber on it, and in good seasons 
may be paid for from a single crop. 

The houses were built in a former age with 
no reference to railroads and modern condi- 
tions; the lands were poor, markets inaccessible; 
and with the new conditions the ability of the 
owners to maintain themselves perished and, 
after long struggling, they submitted perforce, 
and new owners came in and took possession. 
These were of the class which, if they made 
little, spent nothing — the small-farmer class 
which work with their own hands. 

One of the handsomest houses in the county 
in which I was reared, and which once was the 
home of culture, elegance, and princely hos- 
pitality, is now in the possession of a tenant. 
Not long since a gentleman passed through the 
place and stopped there. A dinner-pot boiled 
in the old drawing-room, hung on a spike driven 
into a crack in a fine old marble mantel. 



AN OLD NEIGHBORHOOD 

Another such house, in a neighboring county, 
where I used to visit as a youngsti r, conn 

my mind. It had been owned for man . 
tions by the old Virginia family which at thai 
time still made it one of the most charming 
houses in the State. A bevy of lovely girls, 
transmitting the traditional beauty of theii 
mother (which, indeed, though faded with 
and sorrow, still spoke for itself), made it one 
of the most popular places in Virginia. I he 
old flower-garden, filled with old-fashioned 
roses, lilacs, hollyhocks, and other flowers in 
profusion, stretched wide around it, with walki 
and bowers which many lovers blessed, as t! 
had blessed them, and the horse racks and 
stables were never empty of visitors' hor 
whilst within and all about were a sweetro 
and charm which have never been surpassed. 
A friend whom I first met there told me he 
there not long ago. He found the mansion 
divided up and occupied by two or three fami- 
lies of foreigners, whose women went barefooted, 
and whose children sprawled in rags and dirt 
about the once polished floors. 

There are some who never hear the fl 
gentleman without thinking it is an insult to 
themselves, and who will perhaps say that the 
place serves a better use now than in the days 



360 THE OLD DOMINION 

when plenteous hospitality and elegance had 
their homes there. This might be so could the 
several families not obtain food and shelter else- 
where; but had the family come by natural 
evolution into the first mansion, they would not 
have cracked the mantel. When they shall de- 
velop, if they ever develop, they will want mar- 
ble mantels uncracked; but it will be long 
before they reach that point. Meantime the 
families which once occupied these old houses 
and used marble mantels have passed away or 
gone far off. These are no exceptional cases. 
It is easy to find similar instances throughout 
the entire South; indeed, it is hard not to find 
them. 

Of late, however, the people have awakened 
and the forests are giving place to well-tilled 
fields. The generation that went ofF after the 
war have returned or are returning, some bring- 
ing their sheaves with them, and are building 
up once more the waste places. Some of the 
old plantations are being restored, while others, 
which were once large estates cultivated by slave 
labor, are now divided into small farms, culti- 
vated by their owners. On the former culture 
and refinement dwell as of yore, and the steadily 
improving schools are awaking the small farmer 
to the opportunities at his door. 



AN OLD NEIGHBORHOOD 

Thus, "the old neighborhood/ 1 ai irs (Heads 
love to call it, finds itself falling a little into the 

movements of modern life, and with a pleasant 
and healthful climate, a responsive soil, kindly 

manners and old-fashioned ideas, it ofl 
haven of rest to whomsoever, after having h< 
tossed and buffeted by the winds and 
varying fortune, may come home to sec b 
sweet and peaceful life with content may 1 



IX 

AN OLD VIRGINIA SUNDAY 

TNTIL just now there has been apparent an 
impression which somehow became quite 
general out of the South, that nearly everything 
that has counted for much in the history of this 
country, either sprang from or took its color 
from New England. Much of the history which 
has been written of late years teaches this — in- 
ferentially, perhaps, but quite distinctly. 

For example, the New England Puritans have 
been rather assumed to have been the only very 
religious population of the colonies. They have 
certainly been declared by those who have un- 
dertaken to set up as teachers, to have been the 
only section of the population inspired by a high 
ethical principle. While, on the other hand, 
the population of the South, particularly of Vir- 
ginia, have been assumed to have been a royster- 
ing, hell-raking lot of adventurers who, ready 
enough maybe to fight in any cause, good or bad, 

yet wanted the essential principle of serious 

362 



AN OLD VIRGIN] \ SUNDAY 

character, from which alone any great achi< 

ment could spring. 

Even so thoughtful, and later, BO well in- 
formed an historian as the late [ohn I ifke 
stated in his " Beginnings of New England' 1 
that the principle of "No taxation without 
representation" on which the- Revolutionary 
War was fought, had its first beginning in 
America in a town-meeting in Massachu* 
in 1630. 

Much of the recent teaching of history hai 
been to the effect that Virginia waa settled 
mainly with a view to discovering gold and ob- 
taining worldly wealth, while into tin- nam* 
the Virginia adventurers, whose far-seeing wis- 
dom, patriotic zeal and religious fervor d< 
their fortunes and in many instances their In 
to building up an Anglo-Saxon Empire in the 
West, has been read a debased meaning which 
grew out of later and quite other conditions. 

The planting of Virginia had its origin in the 
patriotic zeal of the people of England to wi 
this continent from Spain, and build up 
England a great Anglo-Saxon Protestant 
in the West which should enable her to with- 
stand Spain's vaulting ambition which menai 

the world. 

It has been charged by those ignorant ol the 



364 THE OLD DOMINION 

facts or incapable of comprehending them, that 
Virginia was planted only for gain. The fact is 
far otherwise. 

The planting of Virginia had its origin in the 
religious zeal of the people of England; the 
prime objects of the movement were ever ex- 
pressed to be the "welfare of the Kingdom of 
God and the Kingdom of England," and the 
final instructions to the first colony that settled 
at Jamestown closed with an exhortation "to 
serve and fear God, the Giver of all Goodness, 
for every plantation which our Heavenly Father 
hath not planted shall be rooted out." This 
exhortation the new settlers ever observed, and 
though the forms of worship differed on their 
part, and on the part of the Puritans, no Puri- 
tans were ever more zealous than these Church of 
England colonists of Virginia. Religious fervor 
was the characteristic of the time. The annals 
and records show that religion was a prominent 
part of their life, and from that day to this the 
people of Virginia have been among the most 
religious people in the world. 

On that first Sunday when the Indians took 
the fort, as soon as the attack had been repulsed, 
"Worthy Master Hunt" asked the president if 
it were his pleasure to have a sermon, and Wing- 
field replied that the "men were weary and 



AN OLD VIRGINIA SUNDAY 

hungry, and if it pleased him he- would wait unnl 
some other time." And even this failure 
made the subject of a charge against him by his 
enemies. 

The records are full of the piety of the time, 
and the ministrations of those- faithful Soldien 
of Christ, who came in the true missionan 
spirit, prepared to lay down their h\ 
with joy in their Master's service. 

It is believed that the first edifice erected after 
the construction of the fortifications was, how- 
ever rude, a church, and on its site four 
edifices arose before Jamestown ceased to be 
the Capital of Virginia. 

The first act of Lord Delaware on his arrival, 
when he had met and turned back the famishing 
remnant of the colony, was to fall on his kneel 
before he entered the South Gate of the fort 
where Sir Thomas Gates was drawn up with his 
fifty soldiers to receive him. 

The first laws posted in Virginia contained 
the laws promulgated by Argall and his Council, 
enjoining attendance on divine worship under 
penalty of lying neck and heels on the 
garde and slavery to the colony for a wee! I 
the first omission; for the second, slavery I 
month, and for the third, slavery to the colony 
for a year. 



3 66 THE OLD DOMINION 

Indeed, whatever the short-comings of the 
Virginians were, the lack of piety was not among 
them. I venture to make the assertion that 
their attendance upon divine worship from the 
time of Argall's laws, down to the last ringing of 
the church-bells has not been exceeded by the 
people of any other colony or State in this coun- 
try. It gave the complexion to their life, and 
with chivalry and love of the rights of free- 
men, gave its fibre. 

It is true that the seeking of wealth bore its 
part in the enterprise, as it has ever borne its 
part as one of the objects of human endeavor. 
Sir Walter Raleigh sought El Dorado; but who 
will be so stupid as to charge that this was his 
chief aim ? So none can read the true story of 
the founding of Virginia without discovering on 
how much broader a foundation it was laid. 
The aspiration was for the establishment of a 
great Protestant State; a bulwark for England 
across the seas. The foundation was cemented 
by the dust of thousands of bold soldiers of 
Christ, who left comfort and ease behind them 
to face Death in its most terrible form. 

Those who will take the trouble to burrow out 
from the musty records of the time their history, 
will find it the story of as high and noble forti- 
tude as ever illumined the pages of human en- 



AN OLD VIRGINIA SUNDAY 

deavor. No embellishment is required. Truly 
it may be said, as was said at the tin I 1 

nothing can purge that famous action frond tin- 
infamous scandal some ignorantly ha n- 
ceted., as the plain, simple and naked I ruth." 

Itwas a church-going time. Religit >i 
the energies of the people. Participation in 
worship was the law, and whoever Failed in if 
was a law-breaker and was dealt with accord- 
ingly. One of the early laws provided thai on 
every plantation an apartment should I 
aside for religious services and should be U 
for no secular purpose. Such a law was 
needed. Religion was the basis of the life as it 
still is today, and the idea that it was not is but 
an echo of the time when every form o( Puri- 
tanism thought every other form of religion 
than idolatry. Later on, for a brief peri< d, pri< >r 
to the Revolution, came a certain laxness the 
reflexof the taut-strung bow— when the fox-hunt- 
ing, cock-fighting parsons were inducted into tin- 
livings; but as the causes were temporary, tin- 
main cause being the political appointor 
an absentee metropolitan, so the effect was not 

permanent. 

Itwas out of these conditions that the 1 1 
Presbytery sprang, under the influenceoj I ' 
Henry's model, the eloquent "Parson Davn 



368 THE OLD DOMINION 

later the president of Princeton College. It 
was out of these conditions that the Methodist 
Church and the Baptist Church came into being. 
Indeed, while some of the English parsons, who 
have made the time notorious, were dicing and 
drinking and fighting, the laity were standing 
staunchly for the old customs, and were mak- 
ing the saddling upon them of such miscreants 
one of the charges in their indictment against 
the Government "at home." They withstood 
innovation. They kept the faith. They built 
churches which still stand to-day as memorials of 
their piety and churchmanship. Among the 
finest architectural relics of the colonial period 
are the massive brick churches throughout Tide- 
water Virginia, some of them now towering in 
a wilderness, like that on Carter's Creek, near 
the Rappahannock. It is possible that pride, 
too, entered into the motive at times, for it is re- 
lated that old Mrs. Carter, of Corotomon, whose 
family built the church on Carter's Creek, di- 
rected when she came to die, that she should be 
buried under the aisle on the side where the poor 
sat, that they might walk over her in her death, 
who had carried herself so loftily in her life. 

"President" Nelson, of the King's Council, 
who owned the land in Hanover County on which 
the mansion described in this paper was built two 



AN OLD VIRGINIA SUNDAY 

generations later, always spread a tabic on Sun- 
day, at his home in York, to entertain th< re- 

gation that attended the church th( I 

Lists of the vestries have- been published, and 
every student of the history of that time must be 
struck by the number of those who became noted 
in the great Revolutionary struck-. The roll 
the great conventions were almost made up from 
the vestrv-lists. 

Having achieved independence, these same 
churchmen disestablished the Church. Mi. 
Madison said that the clergy, having so largely 
taken the English side, had made the Church so 
unpopular that the churchmen felt it necessary 
to disestablish it to save it. Their feeling is illus- 
trated by the story told by Bishop Meade of the 
old gentleman in his cocked hat and ruffles who, 
during the contest over the disestablishment 
measure, was approached by a constituent with 
an inquiry as to how he would vote. 

He said he should vote for the bill; for he wai 
of opinion that every man should have the right 
to choose his own road to heaven; hut he • 
very sure that a gentleman would always take the 
Episcopal way. 

Even the drastic measure of disestablishment 
hardly saved the Church; the gentry had largely 
been ruined by the war, and the plain people 



370 THE OLD DOMINION 

were finding other churches more congenial to 
them. Thus, the first bishops, Madison and 
Moore, had a hard struggle to build up the 
waste places. 

Then came the iron bishop, Meade, who saw 
the task before him clearly, and went about it 
with an irresistible resolution. A man of re- 
markable intellect, of unquestioned piety, and of 
iron will, he took the Church in Virginia in his 
strong grasp and moulded it to suit himself. He 
was the supreme dictator among the Episco- 
palians of the State, and stamped his impress 
indelibly on their thought and life. He was a 
Spartan in habit and a Calvinist in creed. He 
asked no one to do what he would not do himself; 
but few could endure without suffering what 
was merely a spur to his energy and an inspira- 
tion to his zeal. 

The writer remembers him in his early child- 
hood, when the Bishop came on his Episcopal 
visitation to stay with his relatives in Hanover. 
His place beside his wife's grave was railed in 
and reserved in their lot at St. Martin's, the Old 
Fork Church, which used to give us youngsters a 
grewsome feeling before we knew how close to 
Life is Death. I have since seen the archbishops 
of both the Roman and Anglican communions, 
and have seen the House of American Bishops in 



AN OLD VIR(;i\i\ SUNDAY 

procession; but I have never seen any prek 

received with the homage that this stern h< 
the Virginia Church had from his people. 4 And 
this he effected by the sheer force ofhi« intell 
and character. In the old parloi at ( Oakland 
engraving of him in his episcopal 
beside an engraving of St. Peter preachin 
of Queen Victoria in her coronation robes, and 
one of the Washington family. 

The boys of the household of the pn 
generation had gone to school to him, and re- 
cited their Latin with their jackets off, and tin- 
entire connection still took the law and the gospel 
from him, on all mooted points. 

He was married in Hanover, and arriving tin- 
day before that set for the wedding, and rind; 
the clergyman in attendance, he declined to wait, 
and, the bride assenting, they stood up and m 
married that evening. No one gainsaid him. 
He preached a stern gospel and lived it. 

Horce-racing, cards, the theatre, and dam 
were all banned as equally wicked. [Tie ob- 
servance of Sunday was enforced as a cardinal 
doctrine. 

It was in a family established in tin- doctru 
of the Church as expounded by this virile divil 

* At General Cocke's they kept a carriage M hie h 
"the bishop's coach," and was only used when the bishop can* 



372 THE OLD DOMINION 

that the writer was reared. As to the keeping of 
the Sabbath this rearing was after the straitest 
sect of our religion. Religion entered into the 
life as he has never known it do anywhere else. 
Instead of being stowed away in a corner or laid 
up for use on Sunday, it was always at hand, and 
became a part, and a very obvious part, of the 
daily life. Nor was it a religion softened and 
emasculated to suit the delicate fancies of modern 
dilettanteism. It was the religion of the grim 
evangelical divines of the last century. This 
world was only "a vale of misery/' through 
which we had to walk with fear and trembling so 
as to reach in safety the other world where true 
Life begins. The Bible was the literal word of 
God, and the only admissible question on any 
point was what the Bible said. No man took 
from it, even if somewhat was added to it by 
Calvinistic exegesis. It is related that the wife 
of the old churchman of York who used to 
spread his table to entertain the whole congrega- 
tion, on coming from church one Sunday called 
her maid to come and help her off with her dress, 
as she "had heard so much about hell and 
damnation that she did not feel as if she would 
cool off before Christmas." The style had not 
changed in a hundred years. The lurid glare of 
fire was pictured from the pulpit, denounced 



AN OLD VIRGIN] \ SUNDAY 

against all mankind; but it was tempered by the 
soft musings of the psalmist in houn 
and the gentle sayings of the Saviour ai he 
yearned over a fallen world. 'Hum, thotl 
hardly understood beside the terrific inter] 
tion of the old divines, were somehow clu 
and believed in. Fast-days were kepi u- 

larly as Sundays. 

The family life was so religious in th« 
that it was necessary to have Sunday quite com- 
pletely given up to devotion to distinguish it. 
Family prayers — with a hymn sung by the wh 
family — were always had twice a day, and aft 
the beginning of the war, wlun the President 
of the Confederacy asked in a proclamation foi 
special prayers every day for the soldiers, til 
were held also atone o'clock, a custom which has 
been kept up in the household ever since-, thou 
someone characterized it as a Mohammedan cus- 
tom. Whenever a clergyman came to tin- house 
he was always asked to have prayers before he 
left. Thus, occasionally "prayers" were had 
four times a day. 

My uncle, Colonel Nelson, was the ma 
of the plantation and always read prayers it he 
was at home. In his absence they * 
by the next in seniority. The first sound in 
the morning was his vigorous call to pi 



374 THE OLD DOMINION 

and then his sonorous voice as he read out 
the hymn. In slavery days he always had 
prayers for his servants before they went to the 
field in the morning, and later on he always 
drew up his men and read prayers to his bat- 
talion. This Virginian churchman was a stout 
Cromwellian who prayed with his sword in his 
hand and fought with a prayer on his lips. He 
was known during the war as "Old Ironsides." 

The rule for the youngsters was "no butter" 
unless we got to prayers, a persuasive ordinance; 
for "dry bread" is dry indeed to a youthful 
tongue. The singing of the hymn, however, 
served a double purpose: it gave us notice and 
granted us some minutes of grace. It had 
another and more permanent effect — it taught 
us insensibly the hymns of the prayer book. 

A wayfarerfrom a distantState passing through 
the country on some business, was directed to 
Oakland to spend the night. He was detained 
for a day or two by bad weather, and after he 
went away he told someone that he had been to 
a curious place, an old bachelor's home where 
twenty people sat down at table and where when 
they were not eating they were praying. 

We were brought up on the Bible, our regular 
duty being the reading of the lessons for the day, 
a grounding which we little appreciated at the 



AN OLD VIRGINIA SUNDAY 

time. Sunday was absolutely given up by the 
elders to the worship of God. In preparation 
for it our playthings, never very numerous, 
put away, and the reading of secular book 

discontinued Saturday night After thil 

I can recall the lorn emptiness of my 
pockets. We were not allowed to "play 1 
"do" anything on Sunday; our sole "recreation w 
— a word which has always had an unplea 
sound for me since — being a walk. It should be 
said that the resourcefulness of the juvenile mind 
was not infrequently equal to the emergi 
and, avoiding the forbidden line of game 
occasionally substituted not less interestir 
tainments. Those Sunday afternoons some- 
times witnessed boxing and wrestling matches, 
"clod battles," and other athletic exercises which 
were not reported at the house. 

Our reading was carefully looked after and 
guarded, all our "week-day books" being pro- 
hibited and our reading being confined to "Sun- 
day books." Prominent among these were Mrs. 
Sherwood's works, beginning with "Henry Mil- 
ner," "Little Henry and His Bearer," and w 
Fairchild Family," the latter a grim and terrify- 
ing collection of moral teachings. < me of these 
I well remember was an account of an excui D 
on which the father took little Harry and Lucy, 



376 THE OLD DOMINION 

after a quarrel, to see hanging on a gibbet the 
body of a man who had killed his brother. 

The writer was nearly thirty years old before 
he ever saw a lady read a novel on Sunday, and 
such is the effect of early training that he never 
sees one so engaged now without its raising 
doubts, at least, as to her social standing. 

The churches, Trinity and "The Old Fork," 
were four and ten miles off, respectively, and 
service was held in them on alternate Sundays. 

The Old Fork, amid its immemorial oaks, is 
one of the old colonial churches, built of brick 
with the glazed "headers" which, mellowed by 
the years, give that soft gray color so pleasing in 
old structures, and with fine, simple lines that 
render a building dignified and impressive. 

The road to the Fork Church was at that time 
bordered by the plantations of gentle-folk, well 
cultivated prior to the close of the war, and sup- 
porting a large population. It followed the ridge 
for miles. Now there are scarcely three places 
left in the hands of their original owners, and the 
country is almost entirely grown up. But the 
writer has had occasion to know that their influ- 
ence has not perished from the earth. Their 
sons have gone out into many lands, stout 
soldiers of the cross, and fighters for the princi- 
ples of their fathers. 



AN OLD VIRGINIA SUNDAY 

We always went to church irresp* tive of the 
weather, or— what was more remarkable of the 

roads, unless, indeed, the weather wa ur- 

passingly bad that there- was no possibility of the 
preacher himself attending. When we 
home, we had the service and a sermon, foi otu 
elders believed in calling upon us to heai sermons. 
This, however, was on rare ions. It the 

Fork Church road was exceptionally bad, 
standard that can only be appreciated by th 
who have travelled in winter that bottomlt 
stretch of clay hills and Serbonian mud, an - 
tra pair of horses or mules were hitched on in 
the lead and we went with four-in-hand, or with 
a postilion. This, so far from being a hardship 
to us, was in fact generally a pleasure; for tin- 
gathering at church had a social side t-> it. 
We saw our friends, and sometimes even stran- 
gers were there. No one who has n<>r lived in a 
back-country neighborhood can appreciate the 
interest that a stranger excites. I can rememl 
casual strangers whom I saw at church during my 
boyhood better than I can now recall notables 
that I have seen in later years. The chtil 
in the country fills a larger place in tin life o( tin- 
people than it does in town. It was and Still II 
the centre of the life in St. Martin's Parish, in 
Hanover. 



378 THE OLD DOMINION 

On arriving at church each gentleman had his 
own place, generally " a swinging limb," at which 
to tie his horse, quite as much as he had his seat 
in church, and it would have been quite as great 
a breach of decorum to take the one as to usurp 
the other. This was a matter of strict and neces- 
sary etiquette; for there were certain families who 
never were on time, just as there were others 
who were always on time. Indeed, occasionally 
this variance was the case in the same family, for 
I remember a discussion in which one gentleman 
charged another with always having been late for 
church, while the latter declared that he had 
never been " too late for church in his life." 

The ladies always went "into church" im- 
mediately on arrival; the older gentlemen as 
soon as the clergymen entered the chancel; the 
younger gentlemen at the first sound of his voice; 
and those of the plainer people who were not 
Episcopalians came in about the time of the 
second lesson, their object being — inscrutably as 
we thought — to hear the sermon. 

In church the men sat on one side of the aisle, 
the ladies on the other. 

Before the minister entered there was usually 
a buzz of conversation throughout the church, 
and after service there was quite a levee in the 
aisle. I remember once Colonel Nelson, the 



AN OLD VIRGINIA SUNDAY 

senior warden, as the hum of conversation 1 
service grew too loud, rose in his seat and 
quietly, "The Lord is in His holy temple, lei .ill 
the earth keep silence before I Inn." The hub- 
bub ceased. 

The organ was in the gallery over tin- en 
trance, and as the chants were sung a numl 
of the men used to turn their backs on the pulpit 
and leaning against the back of the | 
up at the choir. 

The choir led the singing, but the whole con- 
gregation sang. When I can first remember, the 
hymns were "lined out," two lines at a time, and 
as there were a number of the older latin 
preferred their own deliberate pace DO any 
"time" that the younger portion who compo 
the choir could set, the result was sometifl 
amazing. But there were many fresh 
and the singing was hearty and inspiring. I 
member one old gentleman who always used to 
sing with his eyes shut fast, even though In- 
standing up, a peculiarity which possibly 
plained his keeping them also shut when h 
sitting during the sermon. I remember to ha 
essayed the same convenient practice; but my 
seniors were not to be deceived, I was poked up 
and made to open my eyes. 

The pulpit was high up on the wall, and an 



380 THE OLD DOMINION 

interesting event in the exercises was when the 
clergyman, after the service, left the chancel and 
went to the vestry-room to exchange his sur- 
plice for his gown and bands — for no one then 
preached in a surplice. The gown that I first 
remember, during and soon after the war, was 
a venerable garment, and our rector was very 
tall and spare. I can see him now as he used to 
come striding up the aisle, his gown flying and 
fluttering behind him in a way wonderful to be- 
hold. We knew that he carried half concealed 
his sermon, and it was an anxious moment, for 
the pulpit was too high for us to see it after he 
reached that exalted perch, and on the glimpse 
we caught as he passed by depended our gauge 
of the thickness of his manuscript and the length 
of time it would take him to deliver it. It was 
usually dishearteningly thick. 

One of the clergy having on an occasion 
broken through a bridge as he was travelling 
through the parish, an old gentleman was asking 
what injury he had suffered. 

"None," said his informant, "except that his 
sermons all got wet." 

"Oh," said the old gentleman, "they will get 
dry again." 

The preaching was of the old-fashioned kind, 
largely hortatory, very loud and very long, and 



AN OLD VIRGIN] \ SUNDAY 

was divided into almost as many headfl ai flu- 
sermons of the Dukeof Argyle'a dominie. But, 

however many heads, there was one point in all, 
the fiery condemnation of the wicked ami the 
felicity of those who escaped. Learning, elo- 
quence, and zeal were piled up on this perennial 

theme. I early made the disc hai du- 

tion of time is not at all measured by its pa 
but that an hour may be many times as l 
under some circumstances as under others, and 
that of all the means to lengthen time a Bermon 
is, perhaps, the most effective. 

It was, however, when taken with the sur- 
rounding life, effective preaching, and all I 
young girls and nearly all the young nun early 
became members of the church. 

After church, Hospitality had its claim ( 
on Piety, and every one invited even one 
"stop by" and take dinner, the rule being 
accept an invitation given only at the plant 
gate. This was a custom that was highly ap- 
preciated by us juniors, for it gave us a day OUI 
with our friends and furnished us th- 
opportunity to ride strange horses to water. 
The horses of St. Martin's parish "went 
water" often on Sundays. 

The dinner was always cold, bui it 
good that after thirty years we of St. Mart: 



382 THE OLD DOMINION 

have a penchant for a cold dinner on the first day 
of the week. 

In the afternoon unless we reached home too 
late, we had to learn the collect and a hymn, and 
"say" the catechism, an exercise which I appre- 
ciate more highly now than I did then. 

The days were undoubtedly very long, and 
would have been very wearisome to us youngsters 
had we not recognized the inexorable necessity 
of yielding, as to any other divine decree. We 
do not complain of the law of gravitation or kick 
against the pricks of the laws of age and decay. 
When we are ready to submit, the work of sub- 
mission is already half accomplished. 

Reading and reflection have satisfied the writer 
that this extreme Sabbatarianism is not enjoined 
by the New Dispensation, and has not been 
taught by the general Church. The Sabbata- 
rianism of our people was a result of the tide of 
Puritanism which swept over the country of our 
fathers a few centuries before, being based on 
the Old Testament dispensation, and in protest 
against whatever the Catholic Church taught or 
allowed. The extreme type that it took in Vir- 
ginia was a form of repudiation of the laxness 
of the ante-Revolutionary period, and of the free 
thought of the post-Revolutionary time following 
the French Revolution. 



AN OLD VIRGINIA SUNDAY 

Men had to take sides, an d they took th< m, 
However hard the old regimen was, and 

writer cannot deny that he is glad to haw 

caped from its severities, yel he is satisfied thai in 

the main its effect was excellent For one thing, 

it taught the habit of obedience and ol 

for another, that of self-denial. N 

deny himself in obedience to a sense of duty 

without being a gainer therein-. 

Men from time to time tax the hard] 
their early training with their aversion to atl 
ing church. But one rarely hears them credit 
their virtues to their training. 1 he writer's ob- 
servation is that those who base been trained to 
go to church, in the main continue to do so m 
after-life. If there are any who were not brought 
up to attend church, they did not conn : 
Hanover. The old Virginian in "The Ban 
Experiment," however low he sank during the 
week, always "shaped up," pur on a clean shirt, 
and attended church on Sunday, because bis 
mother had brought him up to do it. 

Moreover, there was something tli.it came 
from that direct recognition <>t God, and that 
sturdy determination to do one's duty as ir was 
understood, that gave a "body" to the chara 
not so commonly found nowadays. 

But however rigorous was the life, v. 



384 THE OLD DOMINION 

underwent it look back to it now with only affec- 
tion. It was clean and pure and stimulating. 
In a measure it still exists, though tempered by 
the softening influence of freer thought, the cur- 
rents of which have reached even that retired 
haven. 

Most of the old homes that once bordered the 
Fork Church road have passed away; but hap- 
pily a few of them still remain. The old Fork 
Church, with its generations of worshippers 
sleeping in the shade of its oaks and cedars, 
still stands as a sanctuary for those who were 
reared in its teachings. 

One cannot leave the dust and turmoil of the 
city and spend a Sunday there without feeling 
that he has climbed to a higher level and breathed 
a rarer air. It is as if he had taken a plunge into 
a cool and limpid spring. He comes away re- 
freshed and stimulated. It was in old times 
one of the centres of the old Virginia Life; after 
a period of declension, it is becoming so once 
more, and peace and happiness, truth and jus- 
tice, religion and piety are established there. 
May they be so established to all generations! 



INDEX 



Accomack, 145 

Adams, John, 146; his letter 

to Thomas Pickering, 190- 

192 
Adams, John Quincy, 193 
Adams, Professor Herbert A., 

201 
Abolitionists, the, 237 
Albemarle Academy, the, 206; 

act passed uniting it with 

Central College, 208-209 
Alencon, Duke of, 45 
Alexandria, 156 
Alva, Duke of, 31 
Appomattox, 246; Grant and 

Lee at, 255, 317 
Aragon, Catherine of, 17 
Archer, Captain George, 

115; wounding of, 107 
Argall, Captain George, 125 
Argall, Captain Samuel, 62, 

117; succeeds Dale as 

Governor of Virginia, 126; 

his laws, 365-366 
Austin, Arthur W., 233 and note 

Babington, plot of, 45 

Bacon, Lord, 83 

Bacon, Nathaniel, 132; Re- 
bellion of, I4S 

Bagby, George W., 294 and 
note 

Balboa, Nunez de, 12 

Bartholomew, Saint, 27; mas- 
sacre of, 39 

Beaver Dam, 348; destruction 
of rations at, 350; skirmish 

at, 35 1 



I 

Bimini, I 
Black Belt, I 

Blair. . 
Pilar. 

■ 

Bradd 

Brad 

Brazil, Island of, 10 

Brotherhood, the Whiti 

214 and ■ 

101 

Bui ki-, Mr. 
Burgesses, 1 1 
Burrougl . 
Bull Run, 
Byrd, I 

2CX). 

I 

( 

ml - l «*• 

. 67 



385 



3 86 



INDEX 



Cambridge, 172 

Carew, Peter, 38 

Caroline, Fort, 22; capture of, 
by Menendez, 25 

"Carpet-bagger," the, 318 

Cartagena, town of, 52 

Carter's Creek, 368 

Cartier, Jacques, t,t> 

Cary, Mr., reading of the reso- 
lutions, 183-185 

Cathay, 7 

Cavendish, Captain Thomas, 

73 

Cecil, Sir William, 34 

Challeux, 35 

Challons, Mr. Henry, capture 
of, 83 

Chancellorsville, 289 

Chanco, 130 

Chapman, George, 79 

Charles I, 132 

Charles II, 142-143 

Charles V, 16 

Charleston, 156 

Church, the Roman, 4, 17 

Chesapeake, Bay of, 14, 58 

Chickahominy, the, 109 

Cipango, 7 

Civil Law, 4 

Claibourne, William, 131, 142 

Clay, Henry, 334 

Clinton, Lord Admiral, 34 

Cocke, John H., 214 and note 

Cocke, General, 371 and note 

Cold Harbor, 334 

Coligny, Admiral, his attempt 
to found a Protestant State, 
21; failure of plot to as- 
sassinate him, 39 

Columbus, Christopher, 10; his 
gift to Spain, 4; his first 
appearance, 5; not first to 
discover New World, 6; 
sails from Palos, 10 

Columbus Diego, Governor of 
the Indies, 1 1 ; sends Velas- 
quez to conquer Cuba, 12 

Comfort, Point, 89 

Comfort, Cape, 89 



Committees of Correspondence, 
the, 167, 168; the defini- 
tion of, according to Mr. 
Marshall, 169 

Committee of Public Safety, 
the, 167 

Common Law, 4 

Confederate Government, ex- 
penditures of, 241 

Constant, the Sarah, 60, 84, 100 

Cooper, Dr. Thomas Cooper, 
214 

Corotomon, 368 

Cortez, Hernando, conquests of, 
and rebuke to Philip II, 

i3> l6 
Corunna, harbor of, 52 
Croatan, Island of, 52, 61 

Dale, Sir Thomas, 62, 120; his 
method of dealing with 
conspirators, 124; his ser- 
vices to the Colony of Vir- 
ginia, 125, 126 

Daneville, 287 

Dare, Eleanor, 54 

Dare, Virginia, 71, 69 

Darien, capture of, by Ojeda 
and Nicuesa, 12 

Davis, Jefferson, 253, 254 

Davis, John, 48 

D' Ay Hon, Lucas Vasquez, his 
attempts at colonization, 

14-15 
De Beaurepaire, Quesney, 204 
De Gourges, Dominique, 28 
Dee, Dr. John, 48 
Delaware, Lord, 116; arrival 

of, at Virginia, 118-119, 

3 6 5. . 
De Medicis, Catherine, 27 

De Soto, Ferdinand, death of, 
16 

Devils, Isle of, 117 

De Villegagnon, Nicholas, at- 
tempts to found a settle- 
ment, 21 

Diaz, Bartholomew, expedition 
of, 5 



INDEX 






Diaz, Bernal, 16 

Discovery, the, 60, 8 \ 

Drake, Sir Francis, at the bat- 
tle of Vera Cruz, 37; cir- 
cumnavigates the globe, 
43-45; knighted by 
abeth, 44; sack of Santi- 
ago, St. Augustiiu- and 
Cartagena, 52; battle with 
the Armada, 56; his 
vices to the New World, 68 

Dominica, 86 

Downs, the, 84 

Drayton, Michael, 82 

Dudley, Lord Roberts, 34 

Dudley, Rev. Thomas U., 218 

Dunglison, Robley, 221 

Dunmore, Lord, 136, 161, 172 

Dupont, Mrs., 356 

11 Dutch- Man-of -War, A", 127 

Dwight, Dr. Timothy, 211 

Eastern empire, captured by 
the Turks, 5 

Eastward Hoe, Play of, 70-82 

Eaton, Thomas, 145 

Ecclesiastical system, 4 

Eden, Richard, publishes 
"Decades and the New 
Worlde," 19 

Effingham, Lord Howard of, 56 

Egerton, Sir Thomas, Lord 
Chancellor, 77 

El Dorado, 19, 73 

Elizabeth, city of, 145 

Elizabeth, river, the, 5 

Elizabeth, Queen, succession to 
English Crown, 20; her 
fight against Popery, 20- 
21; deposed by order of the 
Catholic Church, 30; Ut- 
ter to the "Muscovy Com- 
pany," 40; ^r polk] 
^y, crushes Catholic re- 
bellion, 38-39; restrains 
the ministers, 41; grants 
letters patent to Sir Hum- 
phrey Gilbert, 42; treaty 



with 

Emu 
Engla 

her ]h. the 

I 
English Channel, 

l-'.rii the I 

1 I, Henry, 304 

Falcon, th 

l 

1 

disobedi 
1 -. Johi . 
Flanders, Pi 

I ish, Sir I'itral. 
Fla\ 

venti 
Florida, 
Fountain 
Ir. i 

tiating I 

Fran< is I, h 
by < 



Franklin, Benjamii 



Fredericksbui 



■90 



l Bureau, 1 

influen* i 

on the ■ 
Frobisher,Sir Martin, . 

t. 41 

Gaines' Mill. 
Gap, 1 

I 
11* 1 a d of, at 

I 
GUbo 



3 88 



INDEX 



Gilbert, Capt. Bartholomew, 75 
Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, 35, 40, 
43; his plans against Span- 
ish ships, 42; sells estates 
to raise money for cruise, 
47; landing in Newfound- 
land, and death, 47-48 
Gilbert, John, 37 
Gilbert, Raleigh, 77 
Gilmer, Mr. F. W., 214 and 

note 
Giovanni da Verraza, captures 
the treasure intended for 
Charles V, 16 
Gomez, Estevan, voyage of, 15 
Good Speed, the, 60, 84, 100 
.Gordon, Armistead C., 230 
Gorges, Sir Ferdinando, 76 
Gosnold, Captain Bartholomew, 
75, 84; grave of, 95; death 
of, 105 
Gourges, his landing and at- 
tack on St. Augustine, 28- 
29; slaughter of the gar- 
rison at St. Augustine, 29 
Grant, General, his report to 

the President, 250 
Great Bridge, the battle of, 178 
Great Meadows, 170 
Green, the historian, 166 
Grenville, Sir Richard, 38-40; 
at Roanoke, and explora- 
tions along the coast, 50- 
52; leaves men at Roan- 
oke, 53; battle with the 
Spanish Armada, 56 
Greynville, Richmond, 73 
Grijaloa, superseded in com- 
mand, 12-13 
Guinea, coast of, 28, 34 
Gunston Hall, 288 

Hakluit, Richard, 77 
Hall, Aaron, 343 
Hampton Roads, 58, 314 
Hampton Road, conference, 

the, 314 
Hancock, John, 187 
Hanham, Captain Thomas, 83 



Harrison, Benjamin, 148, 187 
Harvey, Sir John, 131, 161; 

driven out by the colonists, 

142 
Hatorask, 52, 54 
Hawkins, William, 34 
Hawkins, Sir John, 23; first 

voyage of, 34; destruction 

of his ships by Spaniards, 

36; third voyage, 35-37 
Hebrides, 57 
Henrico, 124; destruction of, 

130 
Henricus, College of, 145 
Henry VII, death of, 16 
Henry VIII, his succession and 

rule, 16-17; death of, 17 
Henry, Prince, the Navigator, 5 
Henry, Patrick, 171, 178, 182, 

193, 196, 283, 334 
Herndon, Lewis, 291 
Hispaniola, 11, 14 
Hoar, Senator, 275 
Holy Office, the, 31 
Honeyman's Bridge, 346 
Hore, Robert, 17 
"Horse-Shoe Ford," 347 
Horton, William, 145 
Hudson, Henry, fate of, 11 
Hunt, "Worthy Master," 85, 

87, 95, 97, 105; loss of his 

library, 114, 364 

Independence, declaration of, 
146; debate concerning, 
181-182, 185 

Inquisition, the, results to 
Spain of, 37 

Invisible Empire, the, 269 

Investigation, committee of, 
report of, 270 

Isabella, interview with Co- 
lumbus, 8; pledges her 
jewels, 8 

Jackson, Stonewall, 289, 353, 
354; an incident of, 354- 

355 



INDEX 



r. 



James I, 65 

James VI, succeeds to the i 
!ish throne, 75; his ha 
of Sir W'ahrr Raleigl . 

James, the, 58, 84, 88 

Jamestown, what settlement 
of, signifies, 3; the 
English settlement, 5 
peditions from, against the 
French, 62; growth of, 
63, 64; founding of, S j, 85; 
attack on, by the Indians, 
99-100; burning of, 114; 
first elective assembly at, 
128; attacked by the Ind- 
ians, 130 

Jamestown, Island of, 90 

Jane, Queen, 18 

Jefferson, Thomas, 146, 164; 
appointed on Committee 
to frame the Virginia Con- 
stitution, 187; mentioned 
in Adams' letter to 1 
ering, 190-192, 193, 196; 
his "monumental," 194- 
195; founding of the Uni- 
versity of Virginia, 198- 
218; the pioneer of 
education, 201; his plans 
for the college, 202; found- 
ing of Albemarle Acad- 
emy, 206; member of tir>t 
Board of Visitors, Virginia 
University, 209; consulted 
by Governor Nicholas, 210; 
first President of the B< >an 1 , 
University of Virginia, 212; 
his plans for building the 
university, 214-217 and 
note; opposition to, 220; 
his address to the students, 
227; his prophe. 

John and Francis, the, 106 

Johnson, Andrew, 255; his at- 
titude toward the South, 

2 55 _2 56 

Johnson, Colonel Richard Mal- 
colm, 343 

Jones, Paul, 290 



• 



Kri! | 
Kei 

1 06 

I 

Opal 

King 1 

Knig 

Ku Klu\ a 

Ku Klu\ C' muniti .-69 

Ku Klux Klan. 



La< i.-icn 

by. 12 
Lane, Ralph, 

: ' 
Laudom 

22 2 

of, ' 

pub I ui 

the c ountrj . 

■ . 

. Richard I 
his lettei 

letti 190- 

Lee, R 

Lev 

Lief, 

Lin.i 
Littl( 
Livinj 



39° 



INDEX 



Louisiana, cost to, during 
"Carpet-bag rule" 265- 
266 and note 

Mabie, Hamilton W., 228, 231 
Mace, Samuel, 75 
Madison, James, 209, 283, 305 
Magellan, Ferdinand, attempt 

of, to circumnavigate the 

globe, 13-14 
Mandeville, Sir John, 12 
Marco Polo, compass brought 

by, 4; visit of, 5 
Mar-del-Sud plate, carrack of, 

44 
Marshall, John, 193, 283, 305 
Martin, Captain John, 88, 107, 

US 

Mary, Queen, succeeds Ed- 
ward VI, 18; her mar- 
riage to Philip II and 
grant of charter to mer- 
chant adventurers, 18-19; 
death of, 10-20 

Marye's Heights, 288 

Mason, George, 187, 196 

Matanzas, Inlet of, 26 

Maury, Matthew F., 291 

Mayflower, the, 61 

Meade, Bishop, 369; his char- 
acter, 370-371 

Mechanicsville, 334 

Mendoza, his letter to King of 
Spain, 45 

Menendez, assault on Fort 
Caroline, 25; expeditions 
against Laudonniere, 23- 
27; his account of the de- 
struction of the French at 
Matanzas, 26-27; his in- 
scription over the French- 
men slain by him, 27-28; 
refounds settlement of St. 
Augustine, 29; effect of 
his treachery on England, 
68 

Minion, the, 36 

Minor, Professor, 206-207 and 
note 



Mississippi, the, 13, 16 
Mississippi, State of, the State 

levy 266 and note 
Monroe, James, 209, 210, 283, 

Montreal, city of, 16 

More, Sir Thomas, 17 

Mount Desert, Island of, 125, 

154 
Mount Vernon, 288 
Mountain Top, 212 
Murray, Sir James, 80 
Muscovy Company, the, 40 
"The Mysterie and Company 
of Discoverie of Regions, 
Domains, Islands, and 
Places Unknown," associ- 
ation and founding of, 18 

Navarez, Panfilo de, 16 
Navarre, Henry of, 45 
Nelson, Captain Francis, 99, 

no, 115 
Nelson, Colonel, 373-374, 37^ 
Nelson, Thomas, Jr., 182, 186, 

193.334 
New Found River, 332 
New Foundland, 17 
New Foundland, banks of, 15 
Newport, 156 

Newport, Captain Christo- 
pher, 66, 116; voyage of, 
73-74; capture of the 
Mad-re de Dios, 74; com- 
mander of English fleet, 
discovery of Virginia, 84; 
his services to the Virginia 
colony, 95; exploring ex- 
pedition of, 99-100; takes 
first report of the colony to 
the King, 1 00-101 
Newport News, 326-327 
New York, 156 
Nicholas, George, 178 
Nicholas, Governor, 210 
Nicholas, Robert Carter, 182 
Nicholson, Governor, 145 
Nicuesa, takes possession of 
Darien, 12 



IM)I X 






Nina, the, 207 

Norfolk, 156; burning ol, by 

Dunmore, 179 
North, Lord, 163 
Northanna, the, 33] 
Northwest passage, the, 1 1 

Oakland, 348, 374 
Ocracoke Inlet, 51 
Ojeda, 12 

Old Point Comfort, 326-3:7 
Orange, Prince of, 32; a 

sination of, 45 
Oriel College, 37 

Page, John, 205, 306 
Party, the court, 127 
Party, the patriot, 127 
Paspaha, the Werrowance of, 

Paspiheigh, the river of, 90 
Pamunkey, the, 332 
Peckham, Sir George, 40 
Pedrarias, Governor of Da- 

rien, 12 
Pembroke, Earl of, 34 
Pendleton, Edmund, 181, 196 
Pendletons, General, memoir 

of, 315 
Penisapau, King, plot of, 52; 

death of, 52 
Percy, George, 88, 96, 99; his 
account of the "Starving 
time," 104-105; Governor 
of the colony of Virginia, 
240 
Peru, conquest of, 14 
Petersburg, 316 
Philadelphia, 156 
Philip II, Menendez' expedi- 
tion, 23; his message to 
Menendez, 27 
Phcenix, the, 106, no < 
Pickering, Thomas, mentioned 

in letter, 190 
Piedmont, the, 282 
Pineda, Alvarez de, 13 . . 
Pitt, William, his recognition ot 
America, 165-166 



r 

1 1 1 

r 

p 

Port I 

Port 
Portugal, 

hatan, k 109 

'• 

Prest, Ag 

Pri 306 and 

n- • 
Prit 368 

Prinne, Marl 






Eastward 



Raleigh, 

grants 



392 



INDEX 



Raleigh, Walter, Sir — continued 
mand, by the queen, 74; 
expeditions to Guiana 
coast, 75-76; imprison- 
ment of, III 

Randolph, Peyton, 172, 187, 

193 

Rapidan, the, 246 

Ratcliffe, Captain, 84, 88, 115; 
succeeds Wingfield as 
president of the colony of 
Virginia, 106 

Reconstruction period, the, its 
length, 242 

Reformation, coming of, 4; tor- 
ture secures foothold in 
Spain, 31 

Revenge, the, 38 

Ribault, Jean, 21; arrival with 
supplies at Fort Caroline, 
24; expedition against Me- 
nendez, 24-25; wreck of 
his fleet, 25 

Richard, the Bonhomme, 83, 
290 

Richmond, town of, 291-292 

Rights, declaration of, 185 

Rio de Janeiro, 21 

Rio de la Hacha, town of, 36 

Roanoke, Island of, 50, 79; 
colonization of, 51; disap- 
pearance of its colonists, 61 

Rolph, John, 112; his marriage 
with Pocahontas, 124; 
probable death of, 130 

Rutledge, Edward, 189 

Salisbury, Earl of, 101 
Sandys, Sir Edwin, 115, 125; 

the arrest of, 131 
Sanford, Samuel, 145 
San Juan d'Ulna, harbor of, 38 
San Miguel, town of, 15 
Santiago, town of, 52 
"Scape-thrift," see "Eastward 

Hoe," 79 
"Sea-Gull," see "Eastward 

Hoe," 79 
Sea Venture, the, 97, 118 



Serapis, the, 290 
Seward, Mr., 278 
Sharpless, Edward, 131 
Sherwood, Mrs., books by, 375 
Sidney, Sir Philip, 67 
Spyco, the hostage, 52 
Small, Dr., 205 
Smith, Dr. Augustin, 211 
Smith, Captain John, 88, 96; 
discharged from prison, 
99; discussion about, 102; 
author's opinion of, 103- 
104; rescue of, by Poca- 
hontas, 106; his character, 
107-109; his account of his 
rescue by Pocahontas, 109; 
tribute to, by one of his 
soldiers, 113-114 
Smith, ex-Governor, 355 
Smith, Meriwether, 182 
Somers, Sir George, 77, 116; 

shipwrecked, 117 
South Carolina, taxable values 

of, 266, note 
Southanna, 332 
Spain, freed from Moslem rule, 
4; rights of, 9; claims 
Brazil, 9; attempt to colo- 
nize Darien, 16; gains 
Peru, 14; mistakes in co- 
lonial policy, 29-30; Span- 
ish character, 30-31; crip- 
pled by executions, 31; 
ambition of, to rule the 
world, 2,3'> sends the Ar- 
mada against England, 
55-57; extent of territory 
during the middle of 16th 
century, 64-65 
"Spendall," see "Eastward 

Hoe," 79 
Spert, Capt. Thomas, 17 
Spottswoods, Governor, 289 
Spottsylvania, 289 
Squirrel, the, sinking of, 48 
Stamp Act, the, 167-168 
Stanton, Secretary, 255 
St. Augustine, founding of, 24, 

S2 



IM)1 \ 






St. John's River, 22 

St. Juan d'Ulna, Spanish 

treachery at, 
St. Lawrence, Gulf of, 16 
St. Lawrence, the river, 33 
St. Mary's, 156 
Stoneman, General, 349 
Stuart, Arabella, 75, in 
Stuart, Mary, 32; execution of, 

45 
Stuart, J. E. B., death of, 350 
Stukeley, Thomas, 55 
Swiss College, the, 206 



Tampico, 13 

Taylor, Gen. Robert B., 21 J, 

note 
Tidewater, the, 282 
Treasurer, the, 127 
Trinity House, founding of, 17 
Thorpe, Mr.. 130 



Utopia, publication of, 17 



Valadolid, 76 

Yalasquez, 12, 13 

Vespuci, 12 

Vinland, discovered by Lief, 6; 
story of, lost, 6 

Virginia, first settlement of, I 5, 
98; the first months of, 
100; character of the early 
accounts, 146-152; division 
of, 280-285; character of 
the people, 299-304; condi- 
tions after the war, 319- 
321; emigration from, 
after the war, .;:;■ 
mineral sources of, 309; 
climate of, 330-33 1 ; capes 
of, 86 

Virginia, the, Central Railway, 
348 

Virginia Company, the. 

Virginia, Northern Co. ol 

Virginia, Southern Co. <>t. 



Yin- 

infli 

to, 10 
hington, 1 

288 
Watts, John 
Wer 

mouth, I rge, 

*»r 

the 

Wick' 
William 

V 



394 



INDEX 



Wingfield, Edward Maria — con. 
author's opinion of, 102- 
103; deposed from the 
presidency of the colony, 
106 

Wirt, William, 232 

Wowinchapuncha, the Warra- 
wance of, 90 

Wyat, Sir Francis, 129 

Wythe, George, 196 



Yardley, Sir George, 119; re- 
instated as Governor, his 
laws, 128-129 

Yellow Tavern, the, 350 

York, 156 

York River, 114, 139 

Zuniga, his attempts to injure 
England's colonial policy, 
121-123 



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" This is not only one of the most characteristic and charming of Mr. 
Page's studies of Virginia character, but it is a story which readily 
lends itself to illustration, and especially to the kind of decorative illus- 
tration which Mr. Christy has given it." — The Outlook. 

IN OLE VIRGINIA 
Marse Chan, and Other Stories 

i2mo, $1.25 

11 Nothing more beautiful than these stories has ever been penned by a 
Southern writer. The person who has not read them has missed 
something akin to the loss of the town-bred child who treads among 
forests of stone houses, and who has never known a forest of nature, 
the perfume of wild dog-roses, and the unsoiled beauty of God's 
sunshine." — Neiv Orleans Picayune. 

THE BURIAL OF THE GUNS 

i2mo, $1.25 

"One can hardly read the story that gives the name to this volume 
without a quickening of the breath and moisture of the eye." — » 
Christian Register. 

"Three of them are war stories, and all are told in Mr. Page's 
charming style." — Chicago Inter-Ocean. 



BOOKS BY MR. I J A ( 



PASTIME STOK1. 

With illustrations by A. li. Frost 

i2mo, $1.25 

" Some of these short < I 

moderation and fineness of workmai t 

Mr. Page has ever dune." — A 

ON NEWFOUND RIVER: A Story 
i2mo, Illustrated, $1.50 

" The rich promise of his rarely beautiful 
been fulfilled, and the Old Domini'.:, 
of whom she may be proud." — Ru 

ELSKET AND OTHER STORIES 

i2mo, $1.00 

" ' Elsket' is a veritable poem in ; 

you will hardly read, unless you are 

indeed, without the tribute Of tb< 

in the book, however, the one which moves me :. 

deeply is ' Run to Seed.'" 

— Louise Chandler Moulton, In the 

THE OLD SOUTH 
Essays Social and Polit: 
i2mo, $1.25 

"They afford delightful glimps< 
ditions of Southern life which fei 
appreciated fully."— The 1 

SOCIAL LIFE IN OLD VIRGIN 
BEFORE THE WAR 

With many illustration* 
l2mo, $1 

"This beautiful volume, with its ch 'rati. 

will be much admired by tb< 
old' times' which the an; 

— C 



a/ 

By THOMAS NELSON PAGE 



STORIES AND SPECIAL EDITIONS 

" Mr. Page is the brighest star in our Southern literature. He 
belongs to the old Virginia quality; he knows the life of the people, 
he knows the negro and renders his dialect perfectly, he has an eye 
for the picturesque, the poetic, and the humorous, and his style 
shows exquisite artistic taste and skill." — Nashville American. 

A CAPTURED SANTA CLAUS. Illustrated in colors. 
l2mo, 75 cents. 

SANTA CLAUS'S PARTNER. With illustrations in colors. 

tamo, 31.50. 

IN OLE VIRGINIA. With illustrations by Frost, Pyle, 

Smedley, and others. nmo, $1.50. 

11 A umptuous volume." — Brooklyn Eagle. 

IN OLE VIRGINIA. [Cameo Edition.] With an etching by 
W. L. Sheppard. i6mo, $1.25. 

MARSE CHAN. A Tale of Old Virginia. Illustrated. Small 
folio, $1.00. 

MEH LADY. A Story of the War. Illustrated. Small folio, 



POLLY. A Christmas Recollection. Illustrated. Small folio, 

$1.00. 

UNC EDINBURG. A Plantation Echo. Illustrated. Small 
folio, $1.00. 

"BEFO' THE WAR." Echoes of Negro Dialect. By A. C. 
Gordon and Thomas Nelson Page. i2mo, $1.00. 

AMONG THE CAMPS, or Young People's Stories of the 
War. Illustrated. Square 8vo, $1.50. 

TWO LITTLE CONFEDERATES. Illustrated Square 
8vo, #1.50. 

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 
NEW YORK 



